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Your Different Faith
Imagine you’ve been on a long road trip, driving at a high speed along a highway. Then you hit road construction and a lower speed limit. Though your new speed is probably five times faster than you could ever run, it feels like you’re barely crawling. This brain trick is the same reason you feel blinded when you leave a movie theater or dark room. It’s why we need to get our sea legs when we board a boat and why we still have them long after we disembark. Now, imagine you’re a road worker. Those cars driving by don’t seem slow at all, do they? Perspective and what we grow accustomed to changes everything about how we experience life.
My faith isn’t based on what I see. My faith is based on who God is.
1 Peter is a letter from one of Jesus’ original disciples, the Apostle Peter, to displaced and persecuted Christians in Asia Minor, which is now modern-day Turkey. He knew these Christians were living in a world that was like a dark room. Peter wrote these letters with deep, personal passion to help these Christians, and all Christians living in unfriendly waters, to get our sea legs, find our bearings, and learn to keep our eyes fixed on Christ so that we grow accustomed to Him, not the patterns of this world. Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of Life.Church, puts it like this, “My faith isn’t based on what I see. My faith is based on who God is.”
As you read 1 Peter chapter 1, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you can identify with Peter and these early Christians. Is your hope firmly planted in what Christ did for you? Or, do you look to things, people, and culture for peace, satisfaction, and direction? Is your faith based on what you see or on who God is? Do you see trials as opportunities to become like Christ or reasons to deny Him?
Pray: God, give me sea legs rooted firmly in the hope of your immeasurable love and grace. Make me ready to learn from life’s trials. Give me eyes to see not only the world around me, but what You are doing in my life and in my world. Amen.
Scripture
About this Plan
This Life.Church Bible Plan is a study of 1 Peter to accompany Pastor Craig Groeschel’s series, Different. In this world, you’ll have struggles. You’ll face opposition. You’ll be challenged. And there’s a reason for that: this world is not your home. So answer hate with love, find joy in the midst of trials, and rely on a strength beyond yourself. You’re meant to be … different .
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