Rekindle My Faith (Lent 23, 2016)

Rekindle my faith. Isn’t that a perfect 3 word prayer when we lift our hearts to Jesus? It’s what the Apostle Peter is saying in 10 verses. It’s all about faith in Christ.

First, Peter praises God because of what our faith is based upon:

1 Peter 1: 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade– kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Be patient, Peter says. The salvation will be revealed some day. And the knowledge of that ought to strengthen your faith in difficult days. More than “Mama said there’ll be days like this, there’ll be days like this my mama said” Peter says that your faith is rekindled in suffering:

1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith– of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire– may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 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, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. 13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

A rekindled faith looks beyond the sufferings to the glories.

A rekindled faith looks beyond the hills to the heavens.

Give it up for Lent: Letting the world get you down

Questions for 1 Peter 1:3-13

1. How does Peter point us to new life, living hope, and a heavenly inheritance? Why does Peter do this?
2. What is the role of suffering? What does it produce in the disciple of Jesus?
3. How does Peter address the issue of believing without seeing? Does Peter say it’s “blind faith” or that there’s both rational reason and also a true goal?
4. Whenever we see a therefore in Scripture, we look to see a major point (i.e. what it’s “there for”). Because we have a genuine faith in a genuine Savior, what are we supposed to do?

ReKindle is the 2016 Lenten devotional series from Seminary Gal.

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Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular, Be Still and Know that I AM God can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014 and With Christ in the Upper Room  is archived beginning February 18, 2015.