Corona Devo 2033

I like to be ready.

 I like to be ready for Christmas-time.  I like writing Christmas cards and wrapping gifts a bit early.  I love to bake Christmas cookies.  I like to be ready.

I like to be ready when I am hosting friends or family or strangers for supper.  I clean up the piles of papers, and shoes, and stuff that inevitably gather in a home.  I vacuum and I cook.  I get ready.  I like to be ready.

However, I am less enthusiastic...but still obedient to what God says in His word to be ready for today:

So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too.   For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.  ~Peter 4:1

Uh oh. 

Baking is one thing.  Vacuuming and even the work of washing a floor is another thing.  But God calling us to suffer physically for Him/His namesake/and His glory?  Now that's another thing.

But that is the thing God wants to tell us about in the Bible today.  We had better listen.  And get ready.  Be ready. 

So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.  ~Peter 4:1

We don't and we won't do it on sheer will-power (We couldn't!).  When we suffer physically for Christ, He encourages us by qualifying that when we get to that point...we have (in a sense) passed the point of sin.  (For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.  ~Peter 4:1)

It's an interesting litmus test, but it's God's...and so we can believe it.

Can we live it?

I guess we'll see.

But God, being our Heavenly Father doesn't just bark out orders at us about suffering physical pain for Him, the Lord educates and encourages us on "why".  

Why are we different as His children?  And why can we be encouraged and strengthened during our suffering of physical pain?  

For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. (2) You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. (3) You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.  

(4) Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. (5) But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead. (6) That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead—so although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.  ~I Peter 4:1-6

~~~

What if we could change our destiny?  Our death?

Indeed--we can!  Choose Christ today.  We were destined to die, like all people....but the Good News of the Gospel gives us life in Christ and eternal life with God the Father!

That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead—so although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.  ~I Peter 4:6

If we will admit our sin, and accept Jesus, our Savior (who saves us), then we will now live forever with God in the Spirit (I Peter 4:6).

That is all that we have to do to be ready. 

So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”  ~Acts 16:31

~~~

We may have a freshly washed floor.  We may have a plump bank account.  We may have titles, degrees, properties, and earthly preparations made.  But are we ready to suffer physically for Christ? 

Get ready today.  Be ready.

~~~

So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. 

(2) You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. 

(3) You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.  

(4) Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. (5) But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead. 

(6) That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead—so although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.  ~I Peter 4:1-6


Blessings, 

Sarah 

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com

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