Wednesday 13 Nov 2013

Wednesday Reading: 1 Peter 2:13-17

Key Verse: 1 Peter 2:17
17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, and honour the king.

Devotion:
Part of being a Christian has got to be setting yourself apart from the ways of the world; not setting yourself apart from the people of the world! God wants us to be able to show others that we obey laws, we obey people in charge, we try to do what is righteous and above all, we obey our God. The ways of this world seem to dictate that man should be able to do anything that seems right in his own eyes. I have learned the hard way in the past that this cannot be done without getting into deep trouble!

The most important part, I feel, from this is that we show respect toward everyone in our lives. Whilst it is very hard to show respect to people who do not respect anyone else, we should not get caught up in their ways but rather continue to trust that God will give us the grace to be able to show respect. When others see that we are willing to show respect, they will grow to trust us and in doing so will start to show us respect. If we turn our backs on them before that moment, we will never gain their respect.

Is there ever going to be cases where this is not true? That is debatable! I believe that God has given every single one of us the ability to show some respect some of the time. Some people will not be able to stick with that respect because their lives are so corrupt that they lose track of things before they understand what is going on! To those people we need to extend further grace but also authority to show them that they need authority as well as respect – if they ignore authority, respect for them cannot be built up.

As for other Christians, we need to show them extra love, care, trust and respect. We need to build up the church of God and not break it down by separation! We need to show each other that God is pre-eminent in our lives and that we try to do His will at all times. That may sound obvious, but putting it into practise is not always as straight forward as it should be!

Points to Ponder:
Do you relate to others?

Can God relate to you?