WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Ask God to teach you a new thing about living for him today.

Stop, look, listen
An old proverb says: ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.’

Jesus had declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), but Peter had not grasped that truth properly. He needed to stop; he needed to look at God’s vision; he needed to listen to what God was saying – and then to put it into action.

A new truth
It would have been very hard to abandon his upbringing in the Jewish law, and to eat ‘unclean’ food which would have cut him off from his community for a time. In this vision God is dramatically showing Peter new things, and the Holy Spirit is helping him begin to put them into action (v 19).

Peter has also been living all this time with a tanner (v 6; 9:43). Tanners spent much of their working day being ritually unclean, dealing with the skins of dead animals. Perhaps this was also God’s gentle way of acclimatising Peter to the new truth he needed to show him.

Respond: Were you brought up with believers’ traditions? A lot of traditions are helpful but today might be a good time to check before God whether they are helping or hindering. Look out for what new thing God is teaching you about living out your faith in action. Remember you may need to stop, look, listen and act!

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-12-08