Gloryifying God through our devotions

Gloryifying God through our Behavior

S 1 Peter 2 

11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

O - This is Peter‘s exhortation to the churches that he has shepherded. The theme of this chapter is to help for church recognize the importance of maintaining a good witness, i.e., being able to show the community how Christ has change them through how they behave.  This is why he urged them to abstain from the things that wage against her soul. I can imagine those things being the love of money, coveting other people‘s possessions and powers. These are the things to avoid. The things to do, not surprisingly are good deeds for others because coupled with a proclamation that you a disciple of Christ’ and that you have been changed and transformed and able to resist the sins of this world, and that your only goal is to do good deeds that serve your fellow man while glorifying find your God.

A -  The application for me is to recognize how important it is to guard my witness. Like Paul, I confess that sometimes I do what I don’t want to do. I recognize that I at times have wore on my flesh on my sleeve, and at times externally displayed reduces my effectiveness as a disciple of God.  I have some specific examples that come to mind that I must be wary and guard myself against. The first one is likely Facebook where at times I am joy and opinionated opportunity to display how I feel on various subjects, I must be cautious not to ruin my witness on Facebook.  Second is at work. I must be behaving in a manner that shows my faith and confidence in Christ, while not condemning others. I have always been a little hard and pressing in on people and at work that comes across as a lack of trust, opposite of the emotion of love that I hope to evoke. The opportunities are more abundant for me to improve in this area and I know with the help of the Holy Spirit I can.

P-Dear heavenly father, thank you for this morning‘s devotion. I pray Lord that you would seal it to my heart. I also pray Lord that you would help me improve in the area of sharing my witness with others, I truly need help protecting my words, my mind n my heart for what my flash at times would fail me.  I pray all of this in Jesus Christ name, amen.