By: Becky Avella
From the Word:
Click here and read 1 Peter 5:8-14
Key Verse:
Peace to all of you who are in Christ. - 1 Peter 5:14b
Have you ever received a letter or an email that was signed "In Christ," "Your Sister in Christ," or something to that effect?
In the past, I skimmed over those amazing words without thinking about them. But lately, when I see them, I stop and praise God for the promise they hold for me.
What beautiful words they are! If we would stop to contemplate them, we would be reminded of a beautiful truth. We are in Christ!
After listening to a Bible study lesson a few years ago, I drew a tiny dot with a circle around it in the margin of my Bible. Above it I wrote the words, "Me, Surrounded by God." I didn't know when I drew it how much I would be challenged to trust those words. These past few years have been full of painful trials for me, but there is comfort in knowing that everything that has reached me has come through God first. It reminds me of superheroes who have powerful force fields around them. “Me surrounded by God!” Anything that penetrates my force field has to go through God first, who not only loves me, but is by very nature love! (God is love. 1 John 4:8).
Are you suffering today? Do you find yourself in a painful trial? If you belong to Jesus, you are "in Christ" and you can trust Him to carry you through the hurt.
Personal Application:
Draw a picture of yourself and draw a circle around it. (Stick figures are fine) Write your name and the words “Surrounded by God”
Read the following quote:
“If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.”
-Adoniram Judson (Missionary to Burma in the early 1800’s)
Do you trust that your trial has been allowed by God's infinite love and mercy? Pray that you will be equipped to trust God's love during your personal trials.
More of God’s Word:
1. God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. -1 Corinthians 1:30 (NLT)
2. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. -John 14:20 (NLT)
3. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. – Romans 8:31-39 (The Message)
Dear Lord, Thank you for the beautiful truth that because I belong to You, I am in You. You surround me and love me. The trials that You allow in my life must first be filtered through Your love and mercy. I can trust you to bring purpose and beauty out of the trials of my life. Help me to trust You as I rest in You. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen
