Daily Devotional for March 12, 2016

1 Peter 2:21-25
This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.

He never did one thing wrong,
Not once said anything amiss.

They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.

Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.  Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO.  All rights reserved.

I will be honest…I am very concerned about the “Christians” in our country who are behaving in such a disruptive and divisive manner.  My mother always said, “This is nothing new.”  And truly, if you look back in history to the time of Jesus - and even beforehand - people have always fought, argued and called each other names. This is no excuse…it’s more a demonstration that we have not learned a whole lot from previous generations.  And God must be so grieved over this.

Consider that God sacrificed His Only Son…He allowed Jesus to suffer – physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Let it soak into your soul that He did all of this for each of us.  And this is how we repay Him – by acting like ungrateful idiots!

When we come to a point where we really grasp what Jesus did for us in His time on earth, we ought to be incredibly humbled.  To think of the healing that He accomplished on our behalf…how He rescued us like lost sheep – and named us –should be all of the incentive we ever need to fall to our feet and worship Him with all we’ve got.  And we can!  We just have to be thoughtful and careful…to watch what we say and do - and consider the ramifications.

We can do better than many are doing.  Too many are like sheep who ambled off and got tangled in the briars.  Intelligent, well-meaning, CHRISTIAN people have traveled so far off track and become so caught up in the hoopla and hype of many present-day situations that they have forgotten Whose they are – and how to act accordingly.

Let’s all take a collective breath and ask God to forgive us – for all of the ways that we fail Him each and every day.  Let’s make a genuine promise to honor all that has been given to us – the sacrifices that Jesus made on our behalf and the blessings with which He covers us every single day.  Let’s make a concerted effort to be the named sheep that He has healed and restored.  And let’s begin today. Are you with me?

©2016 Debbie Robus