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1 Peter 1:1-12 Devotional – Day 1

Hearing God’s Voice from His Word

James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.

Psalm of the DayPsalm 6:8,9 Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.
Read the entire Psalm

Praise God because He Hears. When you pray, He is listening. When you weep, He sees. He is a God who wants to give mercy.

Scripture Reading
1 Peter 1:1-12 – New International Version
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Having God’s Ear through Prayer

    • Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
    • Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
      (1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”)
    • Bring your personal requests to God.
      (Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”)
    • Pray for someone in your small group.
    • Join with others from River and pray for Amelia. Ask God to encourage her, guide her, and strengthen her as she serves overseas.

Living as God’s People by applying the Bible 

Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
It is a common human experience to sometimes not “feel at home” or to feel lonely even when you are in your home and surrounded by family or friends. There is a kind of built-in homesickness for a place we have never been. Paul called this longing a “groaning.” Many feel warm and safe when with loved ones, but when people who ought to be your place of refugee fail you, then it can make you feel even more lonely. After all, if I can’t trust them, who can I trust? If I am not safe here, where am I safe? These feelings and others like them can send people on desperate searches for relief. These searches can lead to jumping from relationship to relationship or church to church. They can lead to destructive habits to try and mask or anesthetize the pain. We have this sense that things are not right in the world and, at the same time, a longing for things to be made right. Biblically we know why this is. Things are not as they were designed to be. Things will be made right. Things will not fully be made right until someday yet in the future. So how are we to live now? Do we just seek all the pleasure and diversion that we can? Do we detach and try to “not care?” No, we must learn to live as sojourners, as exiles in a foreign land. We embrace this current life as God gives it to us, but we don’t forget that this is not our home. We cannot try to make it quench our every thirst and meet our every need. Only our eternal home will accomplish that.

Application Questions

    • How has my built-in longing for eternity caused me to foolishly demand that others give me what they cannot?
    • What would repenting of this sin look like for me?

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