February 21: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Key Verse: 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
Devotion:
I think all of us can look back over the past few months and see how many of us have suffered in these horrible times, not because of any fault of our own, but because there is a pandemic and we all have had to do something abnormal for ourselves in order to try and keep safe or to keep others safe. We may even look back and think we have suffered over and over again – but this is nothing compared to the suffering Jesus went through when He came to be amongst us!
We can look forward as the vaccinations kick in and say we have suffered but now see light at the end of the tunnel. We can say we can see an end in sight. We still have to be careful and cautious, but we have hope once again.
Let's compare this to the life we have with God... We have been living under the threat of death because of our sinful lives we have lived and we were coming up to the time where we would have to face up to what we had done. The horrible reality is the price for this sin would be our lives. Then Christ stepped in, so much better than any vaccine, and took that threat of death away by laying down His life for us instead!
As we look forward we need simply accept Christ into our lives, believe He took on the debt for our sins and ask Him to be a part of our lives from now on. Nothing to look back on... Christ willingly stepped forward to take away the eternal death and give us eternal life instead. He did this because of His love for us and continues to show us the way forward – if we are willing to listen to Him!
Points to Ponder:
Have you had a horrible year?
Will you look forward to God’s year with me?