Sharing God’s blessing

To conclude: you must all have the same attitude and the same feelings; love one another, and be kind and humble with one another. Do not pay back evil with evil or cursing with cursing; instead, pay back with a blessing, because a blessing is what God promised to give you when he called you. (verses 8,9)

Read 1 Peter 3:1-12

When God called you into his kingdom, he made a miraculously good deal with you. In Christ he promised to take all your sin and evil and guilt and to give you in return all his righteousness and goodness and peace. And this deal never stops. He’ll take as much of your ‘bad stuff’ as you can give him. And in return he’ll give you more of his blessing than you can ever imagine.

God has made this deal with you so that you can be a channel of his love in this world. You may not feel that you have any blessing to give to people who hurt you, or to people who say cruel or demeaning things to you. That’s OK. What you don’t have, God provides. God gives you enough of his blessing to share around. You are free to take his peace, his love and his forgiveness and share them with the people he places in your life-even those who make themselves your enemies.

Father, thank you for taking all my sin and evil and guilt, and for giving me your righteousness and goodness and peace. Free me to share your blessing even with those who hurt me in what they say and do. Amen.

by Fraser Pearce, in ‘Renewed Hope for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2000)

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