- Hmm that's cool I didn't even remember what came after chapter 1. In particular in relation to this verse 8 the context of all of 1 Peter repeating multiple times the language of chosen but exiles. Foreigners and exiles in the world, but accepted in the house of the Lord is so interesting. It really speaks to this crazy idea that this world is so temporary and not lasting. But eternal life is real and lasting. But in the face of this world and life and temptation and suffering we feel like the opposite is true, we feel God is far off, that heaven is a fairy tale. But the reality is we must live in faith that what we do not see is real and what we hope for is certain and that the world that seems so real around us is in fact perishable and uncertain and untrustworthy. That there are better and lasting riches in heaven and even gold will fade away.
- Read the verse several times
- It is an amazing thing that we love god and believe when we have not seen him.
- God I thank you for Ivanna in my life her abundance of love towards me blows my mind and helps me to understand your love for me more and it's crazy that you love me with a Perfect and good love and you know what's best for me. God I thank you for relationship in this life that helps us experience and understand your love for us and our relationship to you since it is hard when we don't see you
- Discuss the verse with God
- God it strikes me how much we worry about things we haven't seen and yet struggle to believe in what is promised.
- God I want to continue to grow in faith to really love you and believe your promises and live in your joy!
- What does love mean in our relationship with God?
- What can I learn from marriage in this:
- Its a covenant a commitment.
- Its growing.
- Its a knowing of each other
- its a journey of experiences together
- It means sticking through the hard things and sharing the good things.
- Its a feeling
- Its a constant choice: a way of living and actions and intentionality.
- Its an engagement: preparing for the fullness of togetherness with God in in the new heaven and the new earth - for then I will see God and know him as he knows me fully
- Its a long term covenant relationship. Its not a sprint.
- I don't have to run till I drop.
- I need to run for the long race, run for the prize.
- Its not about how I spend this week or my hours
- Its about who I am becoming.
- God teach me to run this race with the end goal in mind: to be with you forever.
- God I cry out for you to change my heart and my perspective on time. I want to love you and love Ivanna and others like Steve Hodge loved his 3 children.
- What if at the end of the race I looked back and it is only a few lives I have really loved really discipled, really invested in. Would I be proud to have run that race?
- God I pray that I would be faithful with those you place around me and that I would not sit idly back but be pursuing and loving the people around me and discipling those who are willing.
- Say verse out loud a lot
- Learn topic & reference first -
- 1 Peter 1:8
- 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,
- 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,
- Start with the first phrase
- Though you have not seen him,
- I have never seen God
- you love him
- I love him, I am devoted and committed to God. I hold him closest and highest.
- even though you do not see him now,
- In the midst of each circumstance each joy and trouble the question is do I believe in him. Do I believe his promises not only are true but are true for me and are true for others.
- Do I believe he is who he says he is.
- Do I believe Jesus Christ didn't hurry. That though he had only 3 years of ministry he did not desperately run from place to place and person to person.
- That Jesus had to make choices with his time. And what he chose with his time is people. The 12 and the 3 especially and the women.
- Jesus always made time for others, but he did life and discipleship with a few.
- He taught thousands, but was ok discipling a few.
- What if I had this kind of clarity: who I am, where I am from and where I am going and the mission the purpose in between.
- To say my beginning is Christ and my end is to be with God forever to dwell in his house, his light, his kingdom his rule and reign, his joy as he wipes away every tear.
- Yes I can say my beginning and end.
- I can say I am here on earth proving the genuiness of my faith to myself, proving that I really believe what I just said.
- And who I am becoming is like Christ
- and Christ's love compels me that he loved me so greatly that I want others to know this love to know his love and to know him
- Perhaps the mindset shift I need is to know and believe that time is not what makes a difference in the world. Love is the most powerful thing in the world. Time is simply one context one part of the expression of love. But time is not love and love is greater than time. The power God has given me is not my time, its my love.
- Add phrases
- Think about how the verse applies to me and my daily circumstances
- Make it the goal to know the topic, reference and verse word perfect
- Write verse out
- Review frequently over the next few days
Principles for Meditating on a verse of scripture
1 Pray
2 Verse - memorization
3 Paraphrase verse in as few words as you can
4 Ask questions
5 Pray and ask God to help you understand his Word, that His Spirit would give you cross references and clarity so that you understand and can claim the promises and obey the commands
6 Emphasize parts of the verse or words focus.
7 Context - What is this book in the bible about? What is this paragraph about? What is the context of the topics in the verses? How does this fit in with the rest of the bible?
8 Cross references – that are relevant and help you understand
9 What truth is the Spirit speaking to me to help me understand and apply this to my life.
10 Praise God!
11 Live it out! How is God calling you to live this out in tangible ways this week
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