Tag Archives: Devotional

Administering God’s Grace

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10, NIV*

The specific examples Peter uses in this chapter are hospitality, words and service. We’re given gifts for the good of others, not to keep to ourselves.

You and I may or may not know what our spiritual gifts are, but I think this verse applies to more than those. The Message renders this verse “Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it.”

We’ve received so much of God’s grace… let’s think about how we can administer, or share, it:

when we smile at the checkout clerk
when we make our kids’ lunches
when we’re patient with the customer service rep after waiting on hold “forever”
when we stop to listen to an elderly person’s question
when we hold the door for a shopper with parcels

We’ve received His love, forgiveness, acceptance… His joy and Himself. Let’s share it by the way we treat others.

Father, thank You for the privilege of administering some of Your grace. Help me remember to see my service in this special way and to serve willingly, in love and gratitude and in Your strength, for Your glory.

What more fitting song than the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace”?

Love Each Other Deeply

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Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8, NIV*

The Apostle Peter places a lot of emphasis in this letter on how Christians should conduct ourselves in relationships and in hardships. He’s already told us to “love one another deeply, from the heart [or from a pure heart]” (1 Peter 1:22b, NIV)

Now he reminds us again to love deeply, and says it covers a multitude of sins. He’s been urging us to live well in relationship, and I think this is the “how”.

Most translations that I checked speak of love covering sins. (I love Bible Gateway). The Message expresses it as “love makes up for practically anything.” The Amplified Bible says love “forgives and disregards the offenses of others.”

Peter’s not saying love will turn a blind eye, excuse or enable wicked or destructive behaviour. It seems to me the “sins” love covers are twofold:

People are irritating (rumour has it, this includes me!). If I choose to ignore the thing(s) that grate me in another person, choose to focus on that person’s value and to love him or her, that helps me obey Peter’s teaching and live like Jesus.

And by choosing to love rather than to be critical, I’m dealing with or negating sin in my own life. Jesus had lots to say about being critical and judgmental.

Father, You know true, Christ-like love doesn’t come naturally… or easily. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit, who longs to produce it in me. Please help me learn to rest more in Him and not hinder His fruit in me. Help me to love others, because You love them. Thank You for loving me too.

For this week’s song, I chose Don Francisco’s “I Could Never Promise You,” which is often thought of as a wedding song but which I think applies just as well to all of a Christian’s relationships. How can we promise to love others without Jesus’ enabling? At the end of the video there’s some conversation about that.

Free to Do it God’s Way

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Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want. 1 Peter 4:1-2, MSG*

I’m not suffering right now, and I’m glad of it. But I’m also glad God is working to free me from being tyrannized by self: my will, my opinions, my perspective.

Self-focus comes naturally and we can spend our lives encouraging it, but really it’s a prison. And the jailer, self, gets harsher over time.

There’s a reason God asks us to trust Him wholeheartedly and not rely on our own limited, darkened perceptions. His way is life everlasting and we miss it by keeping to our rigid, self-imposed choices.

“Free to pursue what God wants instead of … what you want.” At first glance this looks backward. Aren’t I free when I don’t have anyone telling me what to do, when I can do my own thing?

Maybe, but… life has shown me I’m not a kind taskmaster to myself. And relationship with God has shown me that I can trust Him.

“Free to pursue what God wants….” Well, what does the Bible say He wants? Cruel dominion over all people, wars, suffering?

What did Jesus say?

God’s Spirit is on me;
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”
Luke 4:18-19, MSG*

He came to save us from our brokenness and to reconcile us with God. He asks us to receive what He gives and to pass it on.

Sounds more liberating than fighting with the universe to get my own way. Especially when my own way, like too much chocolate, is not a good thing.

Jesus came to set us free… sounds like the Christmas message and that of Easter. Here’s Third Day’s encouraging song, “Cry Out to Jesus”.

In the Light

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Jesus told us that God is light and doesn’t have any darkness in him. Now we are telling you. If we say that we share in life with God and keep on living in the dark, we are lying and are not living by the truth. But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus washes all our sins away.
1 John 1:5-7, CEV*

I love the way sunlight strikes trees early and late in the day: slanting to emphasize details of branches and trunks we don’t notice at midday. It helps us see more clearly, and it warms the trees.

I love the image of living (the NIV says walking) in God’s pure light. It’s not a one-time deal, it’s a new way of behaviour that takes practice.

We expose ourselves to His light through the Bible, prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and in all the ways we interact with His believers.

God’s light will reveal thoughts, attitudes or actions that we need to change. And it will warm and strengthen us. Unlike the sun, it won’t damage us if we stay too long or don’t protect ourselves.

Father, help me stay in Your light. Warm me and help me to grow. As You show me things in my life that don’t belong, help me work with Your Spirit to remove them. Help me take wrong thoughts and attitudes captive and help me continually replace them with those which will honour You. Help me behave in ways worthy of the gospel.

Here’s a catchy song from DC Talk to remind us we need to be “In the Light”.

Consciousness of God

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Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know…. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.
1 Peter 1:18, 19, 21 MSG*

Is there such a thing as spiritual attention deficit disorder? “SADD” sounds kind of applicable. It’s so easy in the quiet of prayer to bask in God’s presence, but it seems as soon as I get around other people or performing routine tasks I forget to keep my spirit tuned to His.

I need to live each part of each day in relationship with Him, conscious of and relying on Him, serving and worshipping Him. Neither working in my own strength nor begrudging some duties because they keep me from the “important” stuff. Not leaning on my own understanding, trusting my own perspective.

It’s up to Him where He assigns me, after all. Whatever there is to do, I’m to be God’s child serving Him in that role at that time. Being with him there instead of wanting to be somewhere else.

Father, You know how easily distracted I am. Please open my heart and my spirit to a deeper awareness of You. Help me rely on You and rest in Your love. Help me be conscious of You and live in Your care wherever You place me. Thank You for giving me faith to trust You, and thank You for giving me a future in You.

There are some excellent songs lamenting how quickly we fall away or forget to follow through on our commitment to God, and celebrating His grace to take us back, but I can’t find a song that says “Help me remember You and learn to live moment by moment in Your presence.” If you know one, please leave me a note in the comments….

That being said, here’s Casting Crowns’ “I Know You’re There,” to celebrate those moments when we’re conscious of God’s presence… as a prayer that we’ll learn to stay there more and more.

Time for a Cleanup

What He Says

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For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Peter 1:18-19, NIV*

Today is one of those days with more to do than hours to do it, and it’s been weighing on me since yesterday. But I think the same practice should apply here as if I were going into any other type of stressful or scary situation:

Trust in the Lord with all my heart, don’t lean on my own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Pray for wisdom to discern what God sees as important for the day, rather than assuming my entire list is the day’s agenda.

He says He’ll never leave me. Matthew 28:20

He says nothing can separate me from His love in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:38-39

He says all I need to do is ask for wisdom, because He wants to give it. James 1:5

He says trust Him and don’t rely on my own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6

He says my times are in His hands. Psalm 32:14-15

I choose to believe Him and to watch for and follow His lead.

Father God, thank you for redeeming me from the empty way of life handed down for generations. Thank You that circumstances and hurry-panic don’t own me anymore. Jesus, my Shepherd and the Overseer of my soul, has rescued me. Thank You that I’m in His care now, under His leading and authority. I choose to walk in that today, Christ being my helper.

The song God gave me is David Crowder’s “Every Move I Make.” How good of Him to choose a peppy one to energize me!

Scattered Strangers

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Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout 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, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
1 Peter 1:1-2, NIV*

So begins the Apostle Peter’s first letter to the early Christians. What catches my attention is his use of the words “strangers” and “scattered” — I don’t know if they’d been intentionally scattered by persecution as some were, or if Peter is just talking about how the believers are few and far between.

Whatever the reason, telling them there are other Christ-followers spread through the area reminds them they’re part of a larger group. They’re not as alone as they may feel.

I think that’s why he calls them “God’s elect” too — it’s not a snooty term for “better than the others,” it reminds them they’ve been chosen by God and belong to Him. He loves them.

Living in obedience to Jesus Christ can make us feel like we don’t belong. In a sense, we don’t. We’re changing, and while we pray those around us will recognize that God has also chosen them, for now we’re the oddballs, the aliens. But that’s okay.

Our hearts need acceptance, but the world around us is not the place to expect to find it. Peter reminds us we’ve found acceptance in Jesus. We belong.

Father, thank You for choosing us, for knowing and loving us before we came to You. Thank You that Jesus came, God in the flesh, to heal the broken. Everyone is broken somehow, Lord, and you’re not willing that any should perish. Help each one recognize that You’ve chosen them too. Help them come into Your healing embrace.

This week’s song is an oldie from the group Petra. It’s a medley of the Doxology and their song, “Not of this World,” and it’s one of their quieter pieces. I’d forgotten how much I loved this album.

Conscious of God’s Care

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Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favour, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.
Colossians 3:22, NIV*

Somehow this spoke to me about doing right for the right reason—pleasing God, instead of the wrong reason—appeasing people.

I’m not a little girl with authority figures looming in judgment. If someone does chastise, rightly or wrongly, that doesn’t need to crush me. Jesus is the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul and I don’t need to fear men or women.

The verse in Colossians led me to 1 Peter, where it expands on what to do if you’re suffering unjustly: Jesus “entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23, NIV) and “it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because He is conscious of God.” (1 Peter 2:19, NIV)

For me today, this addresses fear of harshness, which can crush me if I let it. Instead, I’m to be conscious of God, who’s with me and loves me, and I’m to entrust myself to His care.

My hope and confidence are in Jesus. He says I have value, and He loves me. He accepts me and is growing me into His image.

Father, when we’re alone I know You’re near, but the fear of others’ response can take my eyes off of You. Please forgive me, and teach me to walk in the truth of the healing Jesus gives. Help me stay conscious of You, trusting myself to Your care and protection no matter where You lead.

The soundtrack God has given me to keep my focus is “I Need No Other” from Todd Agnew’s new album, Need. It’s a new melody and arrangement of the hymn “My Faith Has Found a Resting Place” (or “No Other Plea”).

Healed and Free

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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 Peter 2:24-25, NIV*

Peter’s words echo Isaiah 53, and to me they speak of a spiritual healing: from sin into righteousness, from our transgressions and iniquities and sorrows into peace.

I have no insights about physical healing, but spiritual hurts go even deeper—and they are clearly promised to be healed.

The Apostle Paul tells us to count ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, and he doesn’t mean to ignore our failings and pretend they don’t exist. I think he means to walk in the truth of God’s Word and not give in to the old ways.

To take Jesus’ promises as true and trust Him to be at work in us. To believe that His power is greater than our pain. To cooperate with Him as He changes us into what He designed us to be.

Father, there are so many things You want to heal and change in each of us. So much pain in the world. You are the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. The Message says You have named us and keep us for good. Help me love, trust and obey You.

I know I referred to this song last week, but I can’t read these verses without hearing Peter Furler’s impassioned recitation of parts of Isaiah 53 in the newsboys’ song (extended version), “I Am Free.” What I’d really like to share with you is the 7-minute version on the special edition Go CD, but this is at least more of it than you’d usually hear on the radio. It’s loud, but take the words to heart. It’s the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Janet Sketchley

Writing Christian Mysteries & Suspense

Tag Archives: Devotional

Administering God’s Grace

Love Each Other Deeply

Free to Do it God’s Way

In the Light

Consciousness of God

Time for a Cleanup

What He Says

Scattered Strangers

Conscious of God’s Care

Healed and Free