Hope, Day 15 Stand fast in the true grace. Read 1 Peter 5:12-14. As we finish this book of first Peter, we see Peter finalizing his statements to the believers. He reminds them that he is writing this along with the other brothers who are encouraging them to be faithful and to live the life that God is requesting of them. They are to stand fast and be faithful. Part of that standing fast is standing fast in true grace. Peter doesn’t want them to get confused or misunderstand. They are to recognize the true grace of God, and to see that he is the reason we have the hope…

Hope, Day 14 Stand strong. Read 1 Peter 5:8-10. As Christians, we all know we have an enemy out there. That will come as no surprise to see the Bible explain that we have our enemy Satan seeking to devour us like a roaring lion. Many have heard this verse before and understand the impact that Satan has in the world today. However, it’s important to recognize that our responsibility is to stand firm, or strong. We don’t have to go out and provoke things. Our job is to stand. This verse reminds me a lot of all the verses that we saw in Joshua when we studied through that…

Hope, Day 13 Are you the most humble person you know? Read 1 Peter 5:1-7. My husband and I have a running joke with each other. One of us will do something well and then tell the other one our “greatness.” Then the other person will say, “Yes, and you are also the most humble person I know.” We’ll both laugh at the irony because humility is the exact opposite of boasting and pride. As we read through these verses today, we are reminded that we are to humble ourselves before the Lord. This doesn’t mean that we put ourselves down or talk negatively about ourselves. On the contrary, true…

Hope, Day 12 What’s in a name? Read 1.Peter 4:12-19. Names mean a lot. Parents choose names for their children for lots of reasons. Often they want strong, positive names or maybe a child is named after after family members that were loved and respected. In the Old Testament, names typically were to describe character. In this verse, we see the name Christian was to have meaning and purpose. Other people referred to believers as “Christian.” Typically, a believer would not call himself a Christian. Christian was a derogatory term that was used to mock believers for being like Christ. Here, Peter reminds us that the name Christian is not…

Hope, Day 11 Gifts and service. Read 1 Peter 4:7-11. Most people like to receive gifts. We like it when someone remembers our birthday or a holiday and we receive a present or a gift from someone else. In the same way, we generally prefer to be served. We feel appreciated by others when they provide for us, or do things for us. In some cases, we enjoy going out to eat, so we are served by someone else. We don’t have to cook the food ourselves or cleanup the food. We like being served. However, Peter talks here about the importance of serving others and using our gifts and…

Hope, Day 10 Surprised. Read 1 Peter 4:1-6. How often do you do things that surprise people? I know being around my family most of the time, they know me well enough that I’m mostly predictable. They know what I’m going to say or how I’m going to act or respond in a situation. However, when we are imitating Christ and doing the things that Christ would do, that means we’re going to be different than the rest of the world. The way we act will not be what people expect. We will surprise people. We will make people question why we’re doing or not doing the things we’re doing…

Hope, Day 9 Suffering and Death. Read 1 Peter 3:17-22. We don’t often put the words “suffering” and “death” together with the word “hope.” For most people who are experiencing suffering or have been around death, the word hope does not generally come to mind first. And yet, the very reason that we have hope is because of the suffering and death of Christ. First Peter 3:18 is the gospel message in one verse. Jesus Christ came and suffered as the righteous one of God and he was put to death so that we might live and have hope. If we are going to claim that we understand and have…

Hope, Day 8 Give an answer. Read 1 Peter 3:8-16. We like to be people with answers. If someone has a problem, we want to have the answer. If we are asked a question, we feel obligated to know the answer. Sometimes people will even make up an answer, just to have an answer to share. We can be so quick to give an answer. Yet, when it comes to the reasons we follow Christ, often we gloss over those answers, or hide those answers, or don’t really understand our answers. Peter has been talking about the hope that we have in Christ, and his challenge today is to understand…

Hope, Day 6 Follow the example. Read 1 Peter 2:18-25. Every teacher knows that having an example is pretty much required to help their students understand and grasp a concept. Many teachers have shared countless hours of lectures of concepts and theories and philosophies, but we all know that it doesn’t really click for the students until they see an example. Seeing that example and understanding what something looks like in real life helps us to bridge the gap between theory and application. Peter indicates here that Christ is our example. The people had the law and they thought they had understood what it meant. They thought they knew the…