TWO IMPORTANT THINGS
So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.
1 Peter 2: 1-3 (NLT)
Peter wrote this to the Hebrews (Jews) who were dispersed throughout what we know today as Europe and Asia. Peter desired that born-again Hebrews would thrive in their faith while living in exile, where martyrdom was common. Peter had just encouraged his fellow Hebrew believers to fervently love one another from the heart. He then directs them to do two things:
- Put Away Sin (…all evil behavior…deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech). Life in Christ allows us to experience His great hope and transforming power through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our sin, however, breaks fellowship (not relationship) with our Savior and renders us faltering in shame, guilt, strife and isolation. Great news: the Holy Spirit is kind, letting us know when we’ve sinned and leading us to repentance, the threshold to His grace. 1 John 1:9 (NIV) reminds us that, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Sin is serious. Don’t excuse, deny or harbor it. Deal with sin immediately. Repent. Put sin away every day. You will experience His grace, forgiveness and freedom!
- Crave God’s Word. As we practice putting away sin that distracts and entangles, we begin to experience freedom and a growing appetite for God’s word. In the wilderness, Jesus diffuses the enemy’s attempt to distract by invoking the very words He spoke to Moses, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Jesus, the Word made flesh, underscores the life-giving, life-sustaining essentiality of God’s word in the believer's life.
APPLICATION: God speaks to us. Listen. Talk to Him. Remember that He loves you and loves to show mercy. What sin is the Holy Spirit leading you to put away today?
- Confess what the Holy Spirit brings to mind. Ask and receive His cleansing and forgiveness!
- Ask God to grow your appetite for His word that you may know Him!
- Don’t do life in Christ alone. Join a Community Group!
PRAYER: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. Amen. (Psalm 139:23-24 NASB)
“… Our Father in heaven…” Matthew 6:9b (NLT)
- What do You want to say to me today as my Father?
“… may Your name be kept holy.” Matthew 6:9c (NLT)
- What do You want to reveal to me about Your power today?
“May Your Kingdom come soon.” Matthew 6:10a (NLT)
- Help me make Your priorities my priorities today.
“Give us today the food we need,” Matthew 6:11 (NLT)
- Is there anything specific You want me to do with my time or the people I’m around today?
“and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” Matthew 6:12 (NLT)
- Reveal to me anyone I need to forgive or ask for forgiveness.
“And don’t let us yield to temptation…” Matthew 6:13a (NLT)
- Is there anywhere I’m vulnerable to temptation?