Things to Do While We Wait

The Holy Bible

⁷ The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. ⁸ Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.

(Bible Translation and Location: The New Living Translation – 1 Peter 4:7-9)

Thoughts:

Living in a hurricane prone area of the world, we know how to be prepared for the often short notice about an approaching hurricane. However, when warned, we quickly hit the streets and pay a visit to our grocery stores and possibly to hardware stores for last minute items to make sure we are fully ready for eventual power cuts or breaks in deliveries to our local stores. Similarly, living in this world and having taken the first step of readiness for God's eminent return, God, through Peter, is warning us of some last minute things we should really be doing to avoid any regrets when we stand before Him. Here are some things that we should be doing right now friends:

• Be earnest and disciplined in our prayers – A Christian living in a world stained by sin, and where sin abounds, must stay close to God and constantly seek His guiding and protective hand to help us to stay on track and not be distracted by the sin that initially entrapped us and kept us at bay from God. "Being earnest and disciplined at it" gives me the impression that we are to make this a priority even when we don't feel like it, but like vitamins and food itself, do it because we are told to, and because we know that we need it;
• Show deep love one for another – Generally we will exude what's inside of us. If God has filled us with His love, then we should have no trouble showing love for one another. However, I believe that just how a perfect God chose to love imperfect people like us, God wants us to love even those who might otherwise be unlovable. Ones we despise because they believe different to us, or act in ways that we have overcome (with God's help). Ones that have hurt us, or who we may have hurt, because the Word says that this kind of love will be greater than the hurt, and also help us to overcome the hurt. Loving those who are different to us is much like what God was faced with when He looked down on us – sinners, yet He loved us anyway. Praise the name of the Lord!
• Freely share your home and your food – Who blessed us with what we have, friends? Therefore, because all that we have, became possible because of our loving God, we should therefore pass the blessing along and bless others with it! Let's truly be an example of the Savior that we worship and adore!

Friends, we are God's very own and He has blessed us way more than we could ever imagine or deserve. As He has blessed us, let us therefore bless others! Let's learn to pass along the blessings and not just hog them up to ourselves.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, I thank you for giving me Your Word to plainly tell me what I should be doing right now. As I was obedient in Your call upon my life to accept You as my Lord and Savior, please continue to nudge me along with reminders to live according to Your book of instructions so that I might do what You require of me on a daily basis. These verses today are excellent reminders of what I should be doing as I wait for Your return. Please give me strength today, and a willing and obedient heart as I strive to obey You and do Your will. Please allow Your Word to make an indelible imprint on the minds of Christians that read this today so that they also might be realigned to obedience. For others that You may point to this devotional today, please work a miracle in their life so that as they see the need to surrender their life to You, they may also catch a glimpse of Your expectations after their initial decision. Thank You for being so gracious to even me dear Lord. May I now be gracious and obedient in response to You. I am asking this in Your awesome, powerful and loving name, Jesus my Lord, AMEN!


 
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