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1 Peter Week 3
Pray
Read 1 Peter 1:8-12
v.8-9 – While Peter walked and talked with Jesus we don’t get that privilege. We, like the Christians Peter was writing to, haven’t seen Christ. But yet we love Him and believe in Him. In John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” So how many of us love Him? How many times do we put something that is not God honoring and not something He would want for us in His place in our lives? Too often we allow what we know about what Jesus commands us to do to be put out of our minds in place of what we think is best for us. The commands of Jesus aren’t set up to make us have a dull life. We have these commands because He wants what is best for us. He knows us; He knows where we are strong and where we are weak. Jesus has been tempted as a human but He did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). Because we have not seen Him, but we believe in and love Him, we are given the outcome of our faith that is salvation (John 20:29). This once again should bring us inexpressible and glorious joy!! We don’t live like this very often. Too many times we allow our circumstances to steal our joy from us. In the midst of trials we only focus on what is happening, not what Christ has done for us in our salvation or the joy that we have to look forward to in heaven. This happens because, while we may with all our hearts believe and love Christ even though we don’t see Him, we sometimes put more emphasis on the tangible things in our lives. It is hard to live with inexpressible joy when we are focused on the things of this world because let’s face it; this world isn’t doing so good right now. There are wars, people getting sick, loved ones dying, gas prices rising, tests to take, chores to do, jobs to work, and too often we get wrapped up in all that is going on and we forget that we serve a great God who loved us from long ago, sent His son to die in our place and to be raised from the dead so that we could be born again to live different than the world by the help of the power of the Holy Spirit. Our joy in this should be so apparent that we are bursting at the seams to tell everyone of our great God! But instead, we live defeated and broken with no power, because we forget who it is we serve. We started out in our faith by loving and believing in Christ whom we have not seen, we need to dive into His word, and to always remember to be in prayer so we can continue to live out this joy that comes from knowing Christ. v.10-12 – For thousands of years, the prophets of God were seeking and yearning for the hope that we have in Christ (Matt. 13:17). These prophets foretold the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, our Savior. They didn’t know when their prophecies would be fulfilled, but they searched and sought after Christ carefully. These prophets were preparing the world for the coming of Christ, announcing His coming and revealing the faithfulness of God to fulfillHis promises to us through Christ. We are privileged to be able to enjoy God’s salvation, through Jesus Christ, unlike the prophets of old. The angels don’t even get to have the privilege of salvation through faith in Christ. This is something that only we Christians, who were made in the image of God and are a little higher than the angels get to experience. God’s grace is so amazing that even the angels want to understand and be a part of it.
We need to remember the joy that is brought to us in our salvation. Though we do not see Christ, we love and believe in Him and this should cause joy to overflow out of us so that others are drawn to Christ by us. By God showing us grace and allowing us to participate in the culmination of thousands of years of prophecy, the angels look down from heaven and desire to experience God the way that we do. This is wonderful to think on!