Steadfast
Devotions on 1 Peter 5:1-14
Monday–Steadfast
“I exhort the elders among you 2 to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it” (1 Peter 5:2).
First Peter was late enough in the history of the Christian Church that home gatherings and agape feasts had evolved into groups of believers with chosen leaders. The writer of First Peter addresses those leaders, with the titles of “elders,” and encourages them to tend their flocks. With outside harassment and persecution, and the stress and stains of community life we can be sure that this was a challenging task. The honor of leadership could quickly transform into depressive drudgery.
Have you ever wanted to get away from it all—to drop the weight of responsibility and the hassle of relationships? You imagine yourself singing with Johnny Paycheck, “Take this job and shove it!” as you drive out of town to someplace where you can experience some peace and quiet. This and similar fantasies are common to all of us. Certainly, there are times when self-care is necessary—for the sake of our sanities and our ministries. Still the admonition to tend the flock of God that is in our charge remains.
Though the writer to First Peter was directing his comments to the leaders of the church, each of us have flocks of which we have been placed in charge. These may be our nuclear families, employees, patients, work teams, or volunteer groups among others. All of them demand our care and attention. We avoid the feeling of being under compulsion or the sense of drudgery by realizing these are God’s gifts to us. They are our mission fields—people and places where we share God’s love and grace through our words and deeds.
Fill our hearts, Lord, with love and joy as we tend the flocks which you have given us. Amen.
Tuesday–Steadfast
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).
Waking up alone in the “Star Suite” of one of the largest nightclubs in the country, Mac Davis reflected on his situation. His response was to pen a satirical, musical ditty entitled, “It’s Hard to be Humble.” The chorus begins with the refrain, “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way.” We may not be famous musicians like Mac Davis, but most of us are acquainted with the struggle between our desire to be honored and acknowledged for our accomplishments and heeding the call to be humble. Many times pride wins over humility.
Humility may be a characteristic the Lord desires in God’s people, but it is not a very sought after commodity in our culture. Many of us have brag walls in our offices, which quietly proclaim our earned degrees, honors and accomplishments to anyone who enters. In our conversations with others, we frequently share our successes and rarely our struggles and failures. Even our obituaries celebrate the “what we did” of our lives.
Our fragile egos crave the approval of others. It is also easy for us to fall into the temptation of looking at ourselves and what we have accomplished and patting ourselves on our backs for jobs well done. The challenge we face is to be able to cultivate a healthy self-esteem (as opposed to pride) and to walk humbly before the Lord (Micah 6:8) at the same time.
A key to do this is to look beyond ourselves. Gazing into the face of our Lord and Creator, we are reminded that everything we have is a gift. The talents and abilities that we used to reach our achievements were given to us. The opportunities to use our skills were gifts to us, from a loving God. When we celebrate the giftedness of life, we are able to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Such an attitude enables us to be humble recipients of God’s gifts and channels of God’s love and grace to others.
Thank you Lord for the gifts you have poured into our lives. May we use these gift to your glory and not to ours. Amen.
Wednesday–Steadfast
“Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
While picking up items at the local grocery store, we frequently look at labels and expiration dates to assure ourselves we are purchasing the freshest products. Some items are usable longer than others. Milk usually sours after a few weeks, while the bottle of coke can last months, if unopened. It may surprise us, but the shelf life of “faith” is less than one day.
We realize this truth when we look to the future. We don’t have faith for tomorrow let alone the next week, next month, or next year. When we look to the future, our common response is one of worry and anxiety. We know that the Lord has taken care of us today, but we aren’t sure what will happen tomorrow.
Focusing on the present day and the moment allows us to take steps of faith one step at a time. We sense the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives and feel the Spirit’s guiding hand upon us. Glancing back at the not too distant past, we realize that God has lovingly provided for us and cared for us. If we momentarily look away from the present and into the future, we can place our fears, worries and anxieties in God’s hands. We know, from our experience today, God cares for us.
Lord help us to live in the present and focus our attention on you. Amen.
Thursday–Steadfast
“Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The comedian, Dana Carvey, created a character whom he named “The Church Lady.” She was always involved in various antics claiming, “The devil made me do it!” The Church Lady was a humorous reflection of what many Christians have done—blame a spiritual evil being or other people for our personal struggles and evil actions. This practice enables us to draw a line between good and evil. We always find ourselves on the side of good and others on the side of evil.
Frequently men have accused women and the clothes they wear for enticing them to lust and rape. The person who cut us off in traffic is responsible for our anger. All the advertisements we see during the day are responsible for our over spending and conspicuous consumption. The reason we didn’t get a passing grade was because the teacher didn’t like us.
Our division between good and evil hinders our ability to love one another. Good Christians can’t love evil Muslims and greedy Jews. Citizens can’t love evil immigrants because they take away our jobs and live off welfare. Democrats can’t love evil Republicans, and vice-versa. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn writes, “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
The noted psychiatrist Carl Jung points out that when we look for evil outside ourselves we look in the wrong place. Jung writes about the shadow. “The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.” Carl Jung, Aion (1951)
Martin Luther said it a slightly different way. “We are,” he said, “at the same time both sinners and saints.” The discipline that First Peter demands calls us to enter God’s presence and allow the Spirit’s light to penetrate the dark crevasses of our lives. We respond to the discoveries with confession, repentance and forgiveness. Emerging from God’s presence, we share God’s love and grace with everyone around us, knowing that we all share a common humanity.
Lord, help us to love ourselves—warts and all, and to love others—warts and all. Amen.
Friday–Steadfast
“Resist him, steadfast in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9).
Indiana Jones and I have a similar dislike. We don’t like snakes. There are a few scenes in the Indiana Jones movies that I can’t watch because he is surrounded by snakes. When those scenes appear, I shield my eyes with my hands and turn away from the screen, and I don’t look back until the snakes are gone.
There are parts of our lives at which we don’t want to look. They exist in the shadow of our lives and consist of pieces of us that we have rejected or repressed. We want to keep them hidden—unknown to others and to ourselves. Unfortunately, these unwanted pieces reveal themselves in inappropriate and irresistible ways.
We cannot resist what we do not know or recognize. Living by faith in the reality of God’s love and grace, we journey to know ourselves. The Lord walks with us and holds our hands. God gives us the strength to see want we don’t want to see and to learn about who we are. In our hearts, God assures us that all parts of us are loved—the good the bad and everything in between. This journey, the self-knowledge and the assurance of God’s love continues throughout our lives.
Acknowledging the good and evil that makes up our lives, we can resist the evil and nurture the good. By doing this, the channels of God’s love and grace are enlarged in our lives. Rivers of God’s living waters flow through us into the world around us.
Move within us Lord and give us the ability to resist evil and nurture the good. Amen.
Saturday–Steadfast
“And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).
Charles Lindbergh was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Jerrie Mock was the first woman to fly solo around the world. Our journeys of faith, however, are not solo accomplishments. We are part of a team. We are joined in our journeys by the people who make up our communities of faith. God’s Spirit also surrounds us in God’s love and dwells within our hearts.
When we are tired from our adventures of faith, we have others to carry the load. God’s Spirit refreshes, strengthens and nourishes us. God graciously gives us rest. The lives of followers of Jesus are not all work and no play. Rather, they are a balance between service and rest. Jesus said it well. His words are recording in the gospel of Matthew,“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Lord, Thank you for the gift of rest. Amen.
Sunday–Steadfast
“…This is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it” (1 Peter 5:13).
The words “stand fast” can be translated in a number of ways. One meaning of the Greek word is to “acknowledge the validity.” As followers of Jesus, the writer of First Peter exhorts us to stand fast and acknowledge the validity of God’s love and grace. Moment by moment we are to live in its reality.
Of course this is sometimes easier said than done. There are those times when God is so quiet. We wonder if God, like Elvis, has left the building. Even when God is quiet, God still loves us and is present in our lives. At times our worlds fall apart and things are completely out of our control. In those situations we can remain steadfast and live in the reality of God’s love. Occasionally, we are overwhelmed by our sinfulness. Though it is difficult, we can acknowledge the validity of God’s steadfast love and unconditional forgiveness.
No matter what happens in life there is one truth that never changes and that is the reality of God’s love. Nothing can separate us from that love.
Lord, move within us so that every day we are able to celebrate your love and acknowledge its validity in our lives and in our world. Amen.