Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

I Peter

One Life

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Don’t waste the one life God has given you to bring glory to His holy name (1 Corinthians 10:31). Life is brief. It is not something that you can grasp, but vanishes like a mist (James 4:14). Like grass that withers after a short time or a flower that wilts soon after reaching the height of its beauty, so is your one life (1 Peter 1:24). It is here today and gone tomorrow.

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In his first epistle to the churches, Peter goes to great lengths to instruct us how we should live our lives in a manner pleasing to God and worthy of His glorious name. We have only one life and will do well to heed the wisdom in this letter.

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Victory Through Persecution

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As we prepare for certain persecution in the not-so-distant future, we must learn all we can about what the scriptures have to say about this. One such passage is Romans 5:3-4, where Paul outlines the progression we go through to achieve victory through persecution: “And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.”

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I exhort you to commit the passage to memory for its encouragement. As we anticipate a day when owning a Bible may be illegal, we should all be memorizing as much scripture as possible. Do not be lazy or naïve in thinking that will never be a reality where you live. God’s Word tells us the days will only grow darker (2 Timothy 3:1-5), so we must prepare before it is too late.

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Marvelous Light

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In a world of darkness, it is comforting to know Jesus calls us out of that darkness and into the marvelous light of His presence (1 Peter 2:9). The darkness of this world is heavy and oppressive. In contrast, Jesus tells us His burden is light and comes with an overwhelming sense of peace and joy (Matthew 11:28-30). This life has a way of wearing you down and making you tired all the time.

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It’s easy to wonder where we can find the joy Jesus promises. We know Jesus never lies (1 Peter 2:22; Titus 1:1-2; Numbers 23:19), so if we are missing out on something He promises, the reason is we’ve taken our focus off Him and are staring at our circumstances and problems. The fact we all do this doesn’t make it any less painful or wrong.

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Wasting Our Time

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I have little time for small talk and even less patience for trivial conversations. It’s not that I’m a jerk, I just have a keen awareness of how little time we have left on earth. My focus is on making the most of the time God entrusts to me (Ephesians 5:15-16). I like sports. I have political opinions. But we have to talk about things that matter, things of consequence.

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Our conversation reflects what fills our hearts (Matthew 12:34), and if what fills our hearts are things having no eternal value, we are in serious trouble. We’re wasting our time on things that are passing away instead of investing it in God’s eternal Kingdom (1 John 2:17).

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Rise Above the Hatred

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The media and our daily experience inform us hatred is on the rise and becoming the prevalent emotion in society today. Never in my lifetime has there been such division across every line: political, cultural, racial, sexual, you name it. The informed and uninformed alike dig into the trenches of their viewpoints and refuse to accept or even listen to alternative viewpoints and ideas.

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Instead of polite discourse, every conversation today seems to devolve into shouting and interruption. Whoever shouts the loudest and longest is the victor. As Christ-followers, we are called to rise above the hatred and not respond in kind (Romans 12:17-21). If we act like and look like the world, the world will never see Jesus in our lives (John 13:34-35).

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