Take Root Day #9

 Day 9

1 Peter 2:18-25

18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person endures grief when suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. 21 For you have been called for this purpose, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you would follow in His steps, 22 He who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; 23 and while being abusively insulted, He did not insult in return; while suffering, He did not threaten, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 and He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed. 25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

“The times they are a changin’” our culture seems to be in overdrive trying to destroy any semblance of God in our country… We as Christians are becoming more and more alienated from the society that is developing.  The changes brought on by the pandemic have created other problems as well.

After reading this morning - pretty much what I got out of the verse was – I need to “get over it.”

If I suffer because I am a jerk, then I deserve it – If I suffer “innocently” and respond correctly then I am reflecting my Father. 

It is very difficult for me to rip my eyes off myself and turn them toward others…To care about them, or pray about them, or be concerned about what my attitude does to their eternal prospects.

My Father knows my heart – and though others can see my face and read my thoughts at times – God sees the entire toxic mix of pride and arrogance. I need a little GOI therapy (Get over it) this morning and an internal commitment to retake a heart of gratitude and love toward others. That is what it will take for me to “returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of my soul.”

 

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