[Friday's Devotional] - Privilege

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.  It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.  1 Peter 1:10-12 [NIV]

Whenever I get a new book I do something really pedantic. I read the contents, preface and the foreword. I love historical novels, so I’ll read the cast of characters at the front (the more characters in a novel the better!).  And I’ll read the dedication. Often the author says for whom the book is written.  Authors can remain strangely anonymous in their books, and so it’s a tantalising glimpse at someone I’m eager to find out more about.

Imagine opening a book, even the world’s most popular book, and seeing in the dedication at the front your own name. For my friend… With affection. Now as Christians of course we know that the Bible was inspired by the Spirit for us.  It’s God’s communication to us. We know it’s written for us and speaks to us. But the amazing truth comes to light in these verses that the authors of the Old Testament by the Spirit knew that they weren’t writing for themselves, but for a generation to come, “you”.

As those who have trusted in Jesus we are in the position of the greatest privilege. Our world suffers from over-entitlement – a lot of people think they have a right to more than they do! The cult of celebrity (even, or especially, of Christian celebrity) grows the desire we have to be special out of control. The truth is that we are special, entirely unique and loved by God, but also absolutely normal and ordinary, just one of 7 billion. The Bible teaches us not to think of ourselves more highly than we should (Romans 12:3), while also recognising that we are in the position of the most enormous privilege. God’s entire plan for human history is being fulfilled in our lives. Our coming to faith, our receiving new life is part of “the glories that would follow” the suffering of the Messiah (v.11).  All the prophets looked for this (v.10-11), the angels long to understand it (v.12), but it is us who experience God’s desire for the human race – knowing himself through Jesus’ cross and resurrection.

Read the passage again.  Slowly.  What else is God saying to you through these words?

Thank God for the position of privilege you find yourself in.  Ask that you would enjoy it today.

Maybe you’ve enjoyed the slow, sipping, savouring read of 1 Peter 1:1-12 during this week.  You may want to take this method of reading with you to other parts of the Bible. Ask God to keep your palate fresh every day, and enjoy the flavours!!

Olly Mears

[Thursday's Devotional] - Love

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9 [NIV]

Isn’t it one of the strangest things about the Christian faith that our lives find meaning in revolving around someone we’ve never actually seen!  Virtually all our earthly relationships are aided by sight.  Being able to see who you’re talking to is what makes Skype so popular. But the one who has our affections most of all is someone we can’t see.  Relating to Jesus is done by faith.  Loving and believing in Jesus go hand in hand (v.8).

“You love him.” (v.8) Love is the hallmark of Christians.  This love is worked out in many ways – loving those in the Christian community, loving people around us, loving ourselves appropriately.  Because we’re made in the image of God, all humans are capable of this love for each other.  As we’re renewed and are becoming like God by the work of his Holy Spirit, love is something that should be anticipated in the life of Christians to an even greater extent.  But this love for Jesus is something else; it is absolutely unique to Christians.  In asking where we are at in our journeys as Christians it is always worth asking ourselves this: Do I love Jesus?  And do I love him more this week/month/year than the last?  Growing love is a sign of the Spirit’s work in our lives.

How do you express your love for Jesus? American psychologist Gary Chapman coined the expression “love languages” to describe how humans communicate their love.  The five he describes are quality time, gifts, words of affirmation, physical touch and acts of service.  The basic concept is that you most easily receive love in ways that you are most likely to express it.  Wonderfully, whatever our make-up and personality, each of the “love languages” is applicable to our relationship with Jesus.  We can love him with our time, with our gifts, with words of praise, with physical expressions of worship, and with acts of service to others in his name.  We do it because we love him, and he knows and receives it as love.  What comes most easily to you?  It’s ok for this to be a default.  But think about which is less easy for you too.  You might find it easy to serve, but actually telling Jesus that you love him is a struggle.  Ask the Spirit to help you step out in new ways of expressing your love for Jesus.  You might find that you know his love in a fresh way in return, the experience of which leads to “inexpressible and glorious joy.” (v.8) There’s nothing like the joy of being in love, and knowing that one day you will see your Lover.

Read the passage again. Slowly. What else is God saying to you through these words?

Take time to express your love for Jesus as you pray now. Allow yourself to sense his joy.

Olly Mears

[Wednesday's Devotional] - Suffering

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  1 Peter 1:6-7 [NIV]

One Wednesday morning some years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Christians who were suffering for their faith.  Two were young lads in their teens.  At their baptism they had been disowned, some family members seeking their deaths. They had lost everything and were mostly living in hiding in a strange city.  But they glowed.  They shone with the joy and love of Jesus.  They were seeing others come to faith.  Like Peter’s readers they were finding cause to “greatly rejoice”, even in especially trying times.

Peter understands that the experience of suffering does something to our faith. Suffering in the life of a Christian is never pointless, never purposeless, though we may never understand it completely.  Suffering tests and proves faith (v.7).  If you’re buying a car you take it for a test drive.  If you’re a teacher who wants to know what your pupils are capable of you test them.  The testing circumstances of Peter’s readers have been grievous, but they have tested and proved their faith.  They are shown to be “the real deal”.  Jesus teaches something similar in the parable of the sower when he says that the seed on rocky soil has no root, when the sun blazes – or trouble and persecution come – the plant withers because it has no root (Mark 4:5-6, 16-17).  Surviving in suffering means that you have roots.

Once more Peter gives his readers an eternal perspective.  Their faith that has been tested and proved genuine will result in “praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Heaven will resound with the praise of Jesus.  But he will also look to praise those who have been faithful to him.  And knowing that truth was maybe why those young lads who had suffered so much were glowing that day. I think they knew the approval of Jesus.

Read the passage again. Slowly. What else is God showing you through these words?

Pray for those suffering for their faith today.  Pray for those you know who are suffering in other circumstances.  Ask that their faith would be shown to be genuine.  And ask that yours would be too.

Olly Mears

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Gifted

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5 [NIV]

Ask God to speak to you then read these three verses through first quickly, then a second time slowly and carefully.

How many gifts have you received that you still treasure?  A gift of food won’t last long.  At the very least it will be eaten!  Give clothing and it wears out, or is soon out of fashion.  Maybe the gifts that we treasure most are things that we have inherited. On my desk is a nineteenth-century spinning top made out of whale bone.  It was my grandfather’s. My vigorous spinning of it when I was younger means that the shaft is now broken off.  But it still sits on my desk.  Inherited jewellery, furniture, finances, even small seemingly insignificant things are treasured.  The gifts we inherit remind us of the giver.  They are precious.

Wonderfully, Peter writes in this passage that as the people of God we receive both gifts and an inheritance!  What we receive comes from God’s mercy (v.3), we don’t deserve anything but he is lavish with us just the same.  The gifts which Peter speaks of are new birth and a living hope (v.3).  The resurrection of Jesus (v.3) means that we are given not just a new start, but a whole new life!  And because Jesus lives forever so this new life will last forever. We are guaranteed to get there because for the rest of our lives we will be shielded by God’s power (v.5) – he will keep us.

And so we have a real, concrete, living hope – death, our world’s greatest fear, is suddenly the door to heaven.  And that is where we get the inheritance of the kingdom, reigning with God and being in his presence.  We inherit because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

Our lives here are governed by the law of diminishing returns. The more you have of something the less satisfying it is. Order a pepperoni pizza from Domino’s. You’re ravenous and the first piece is just amazing and dripping with flavour. The second piece is great, the third is good, and the fourth is cooling but nice.  You can’t remember the fifth and sixth, but the seventh was definitely cold and a struggle. The eighth lies uneaten in the box.  But in heaven this is reversed.  We will be satisfied in God, tasting the delights that he has for us forever, the experience of his love becoming infinitely sweeter and more glorious forever.  What he has for us can never “perish, spoil or fade.”  Little wonder Peter begins with praise (v.3), but a great wonder that I look for ultimate satisfaction in the fading gifts of this life, rather than enjoying and anticipating the gifts of God!

Read the passage again. Slowly. What else is God showing you through these words?

Thank God for your inheritance. Ask that you would anticipate it, beginning to taste it, today.

Olly Mears

[Monday's Devotional] - Chosen

Ask God to speak to you as you read these verses first quickly, then a second time slowly and carefully:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 1 Peter 1:1-2 [NIV]

A Ugandan pastor once said that the Bible can either be “quaffed like beer or sipped like wine”.  Sometimes it’s great to read big chunks of the Bible, it’s filling and satisfying.  It’s equally helpful, at times, just to take a couple of verses and sip, savour and meditate on them, exploring the complex flavour and the sheer joy of having those tastes on your palate. So this week we’re looking at just twelve verses of 1 Peter 1. We are sipping and savouring - I think you may find that it’s a rare vintage!

Peter writes to Christians, scattered over Turkey, due to persecution. He calls them exiles – people far away from home, who don’t belong. We too, live in a society and culture which rejects the claims of Jesus, and so by implication rejects us. Have you ever felt like you don’t belong? That you’re going against the flow?  You’re not alone. And there is good news.

Peter wants his readers to understand their plight through a particular lens. They are chosen.  He says this twice, using the words “God’s elect” and those “who have been chosen”.  God’s choosing is in many ways a mystery, but the purpose of God telling Israel in the Old Testament, Jesus telling his disciples in the Gospels, and the apostles telling Christians in their letters that they were chosen was because there is nothing more encouraging. It’s the wonder of every teenager finding out that the person they’ve fancied for ages likes them back.  It’s the joy of the person who gets a job at their dream firm that they thought was out of their reach. “YOU want ME!?”  Except this is infinitely more wonderful.  God tells us we are chosen because he wants us to be deeply encouraged.  You are chosen. He wanted you to live life as it was intended – in obedience to Jesus (v.2), and for that to happen Jesus died – you are made clean through his blood (v.2).

And so Peter can say, even in the trying circumstance of his readers, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” God’s free love to you, and his total peace to you, lavishly.  Maybe if today I knew that I was chosen then I might experience God’s free love and his peace.

Read the passage again.  Slowly. What else is God showing you through these words? Thank God that he chose you.

Olly Mears