Tag: 1 Peter

Posted in Bible study, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Quiet Time, Triumphs over Trials

Using our God-Given Gifts

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based on the Love God Greatly Study, Triumph over Trials / w1d5

THE JOURNEY (SCRIPTURE AND OBSERVATION)

Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7-11 and SOAP: verses 10 and 11

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

1 Peter 4:10-11 NLT

Today’s post is borrowed and shared from the LGG, Triumph over Trials edition, p110

As believers, we are living in anticipation of Christ’s return — a reality that should profoundly shape our lives. In this waiting, we are not called to be idle but to be motivated to love and serve the body of Christ intentionally, especially during times of testing and persecution. A united, loving Christian community shines brightly in a dark world, like a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14-16).

A united, loving Christian community shines brightly in a dark world, like a city on a hill

The command is clear: we must work at loving each other well. Love is not passive; it’s active. It’s not a feeling, but a choice we make every day. It’s seen in the meals prepared for a new mom, the earnest prayers for a struggling friend, and the open doors of our homes.

God has not left us empty-handed in this high calling. He has generously given each of us unique gifts designed to serve and build up the church and others (Romans 12:4-8). These gifts are not for our own glory but given to us by God, fashioned to stitch His people closer together and reflect His love to the watching world (Ephesians 4:11-12).

When we see a need within the church, our hearts should be stirred to meet it. Whether it is encouragement, financial help, prayer, or a listening ear — let’s move towards those needs, not away from them. In doing so, we are faithful stewards of God’s grace, dispensing it generously just as it has been lavished upon us.

As we help others and employ our God-given gifts in service, the world catches glimpses of Jesus in us. Our love becomes a radiant beacon, pointing to the One who first loved us (1 John 4:19). In our serving, God is glorified, and His kingdom is tangibly expressed through our hands and feet.

LIVING THE JOURNEY (APPLICATION)
  • love and serve the body of Christ intentionally
    • watch for others who need help and seek to meet the need
  • work at loving each other well
  • know and use the gifts God has given you
    • use them for God’s glory and not your own
Question FOR THE JOURNEY

How can you use your God-given gifts to meet a need within your church community or Love God Greatly group this week? In what ways can you be more intentional about loving the body of Christ in anticipation of His return?

PRAYER FOR THE JOURNEY

Dear Jesus, thank You for entrusting us with gifts to serve Your body. help us to love deeply and act decisively, especially when we see a need within our church family. May our lives, fueled by Your love, shine brightly and draw others to You. Amen.

THE MORE WE KNOW

Knowing that Christ could return at any time should affect our thinking.

Peter’s teaching on how Christians should love each other “strenuously”

For more insight on today’s passage visit lovegodgreatly.com/blog

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Quiet Time, Triumphs over Trials

By His Great Mercy

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based on the Love God Greatly Study, Triumph over Trials / w1d1

THE JOURNEY (SCRIPTURE AND OBSERVATION)

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1-5 / SOAP: 1 Peter 1:3-4

From Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those temporarily residing abroad (in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia) who are chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by being set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with Jesus Christ’s blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure!

New Birth to Joy and Holiness

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:1-5 NET

These opening words of 1 Peter always bring me delight and remind me of the hope that comes with the peace we have with God through the blood of Jesus Christ!

Before I truly understood the truths of grace and mercy, I lived in a constant state of ‘hide-n-seek’ with God – striving to please Him but “hiding” from Him when I chose my way over His. Then I would work harder to please Him, somehow believing this would make everything better and help maintain the way God looked at me and the quality of my place or inheritance in Heaven. However, God mercifully placed me in the path of someone who explained the truth of His grace and mercy, and my life was forever changed! It was infused with a ‘living HOPE!” My hope is not born of the little engine’s chant: “I think I can, I think I can,” but by the grace of God that sent Jesus to the cross and raised Him to life again!

Grace: The undeserved favor of God

Mercy: Withholding a negative consequence that is deserved

Our hope is not meant to be based on our lifestyle or determination but rather on the knowledge that our inheritance in Christ is totally dependent on the grace, mercy, and peace of our God and Savior—through our FAITH in Jesus Christ. For it is only by God’s grace that we are able to know peace with God through the blood of Jesus.

It’s one thing to hope we will be saved, to yearn for life after death. Jesus proved that this hope is not a fantasy. He died, then showed Himself alive to many witnesses. Our faith is not a wish for a better world. The reason for our hope in an eternity with the Father is that our Lord is alive. Because He lives, those who believe in Him will also be resurrected.

bibleref.com / 1 Peter 1:
LIVING THE JOURNEY (APPLICATION)

Do you strive and worry about what God thinks of you? Does your confidence ever waiver concerning the status or state of your inheritance in through Christ? If so, let this passage be a wake-up call or reminder to:

  • Live in peace with God.
  • Stop striving and worrying.
  • Maintain a confident and living hope in an eternity with the Father through your faith in Jesus Christ, His Son.

Ultimately, like Peter, our response should be praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Who, by His great mercy, gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! And by that resurrection not only a living hope but an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading – in other words – untainted by us. It is reserved, as Peter wrote, in heaven for us, and it is protected by God’s power through faith.

PRAYER FOR THE JOURNEY

Father, help us never lose sight of You and of Your power, love, grace, and mercy and the peace we know with You through Jesus Christ. How blessed we are to be Yours, set apart by the Spirit and sprinkled with the blood of Christ. All praise and glory belong to You. Help us to rest in You, to stop striving and worrying and instead to trust that Your promises are truly ‘yes and amen’ in Christ, our Lord. – In and by the name of Jesus I pray, amen

THE MORE WE KNOW
A Guarded Inheritance

God is guarding our inheritance, and He is guarding us from anything that might cause our inheritance—our eternal life with Him forever—to be lost. The Greek term used in this verse is phrouroumenous, a military term, also translated as “shielded,” “kept,” or “protected.”

bibleref.com / 1 Peter 1

In regards to 1 Peter 1-2

I love that God knows/sees the beginning from the end from before the foundations of the earth were laid (Eph 1:4). I love knowing the truth of Jeremiah 1:5, that God in His infinite power “formed” Jeremiah in his mother’s womb and chose him to be a prophet to the nations – before Jeremiah was even born! — Oh, the beauty of God’s grace we see in His “foreknowledge” – that He didn’t choose only the best of us” to be His, but He chose the prodigals, the adulterers, the murderers, the thieves, the greedy, poor and wayward … And to us, those who by faith would believe, He gave the right to become His adopted children – with full rights of His only begotten Son! Galatians 4:1-8

Music for the Journey