1 Peter 5:6-14 - A Day without Shoes: Suffering with my sisters & brothers

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:6-14

Summary: Be humble so that God might exalt you in time. Give God all your anxieties, because God cares for you. Resist evil because your brothers and sisters around the world are also suffering. Afterwards, God will restore, support, strengthen and establish you.

Thoughts: I've been feeling anxious this past week. One of those unformed anxieties that doesn't really have a source. Things are actually going pretty well for me lately. I have finished the taxes for my mother-in-law and my dad and my own taxes are almost complete. I'm caught up with work (for the most part!). Everyone in my house is healthy. So why am I anxious? I don't know. What I do know, however, is that I can cast these anxieties on God, because God cares for me. Today has been designated by Tom's shoes as "a day without shoes." So I am trying my best to go the entire day without shoes or socks. I already find myself more aware of my feet and their discomfort. How much worse would it be if I lived in a village with dirt roads and had to go my entire life without shoes? And so it seems fitting to me in this time of Lent that I go one day without my shoes so that I will remember my brothers and sisters around the world who are without shoes. So during this Lenten season, I want to practice casting my anxieties onto God. I also want to suffer with my sisters and brothers who are suffering. These two things seem tied together to me. God will take my anxieties but it makes me want to "pay it forward." I need to remember the suffering of the world and do what I can to ease it.

Prayer: God, keep me from getting to tied up in my own life. Help me to remember my sisters and brothers around the world who are suffering. Amen.

1 Peter 4:12-19 - Do Christians Suffer?

Scripture: 1 Peter 4:12-19


Summary: Don't be surprised by suffering, but rejoice because you are sharing Christ's suffering. Don't suffer as a murderer, etc., but if you suffer as a Christian you should glorify God.
 
Thoughts: I'm sure I've said this before, but life doesn't get easier when you become a Christian. Yes there will be times when God blesses us with good things, when we feel that we have everything that we need and more! And we should rejoice in those times. But there will also be times when we will suffer. Being a Christian does not make our lives perfect so that we will be free from suffering. Even worse, sometimes we may suffer because we follow Christ. The hopeful news about our inevitable suffering, is that God will be with us. I have had several times in my life when I was suffering severely. As I looked around me and saw the support that I had from my church and my friends, I found myself wondering how I would handle the suffering without the help of these friends and family and the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit. When things are at their worst I still feel that God is there with me, walking beside me.  So, as this scripture says, I will "entrust myself to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good."
 
Prayer: Christ, walk with me on this journey that you have set me on, so that I might rejoice in my suffering that I share with you. Amen.