Today's Reading:O.T. - Job 9 - 11
N.T. - 1 Peter 3
I will be speaking about this text and topic at Evensong Worship, on Sunday evening, March 18.
Focus Verses: 1 Peter 3:8-9
8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
Insight:
Growing in our relationship with God enables us to have better relationships with each other. Christ calls us and empowers us to live in harmony. Healthy and loving relationships result as with God's grace and help we learn to: 1) be sympathetic -- able to understand and feel for others; 2) be compassionate -- having real concern for the hardships and difficulties of others; 3) be humble -- behaving with modesty and treating others with respect; 4) be gracious - not responding in kind to evil or insult, but instead with blessing.
Response and Action:
I want my relationships with others to be healthy, harmonious, and life-giving. Looking to God for wisdom and grace, I will do my best to cultivate sympathy, compassion, humility, and graciousness. I will do all I can to build strong and loving relationships.
O God, make me a person who is able to live in harmony with others. Where there is hatred, let me respond in love. When I am injured, help me to respond with pardon. Where there is despair and darkness, give me sympathy and compassion that brings hope and light. When others fail, give me compassion. When others are wrong or weak, give me humility and patience. When others are in need and fall short, give me generosity and grace. Through Christ, I pray. Amen.
Proverbs: 14:29-31
"A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly. A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God."
Resources:
Making Friends & Making Them Count
by Emory A. Griffin
