DAY35 Wind and Fire Today’s Bible Reading 1 Peter 2:9-17
Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honour the emperor. - 1 Peter 2:17 Sometimes when I want to start a fire, the wind puts it out. But when I try to keep a fire burning, wind keeps it going. So, in the first case, I call wind ‘bad’ because it stops my plans; in the other, I call it ‘good’ because it helps me out. This example shows how we judge things by the way they affect us. We call circumstances or people ‘bad’ if they get in our way or annoy us. We call circumstances or people ‘good’ if we agree with them and they do what we want. But God is the One who really decides what is actually good or bad, and He does so not by how it affects our plans but by whether or not it works with His. His plan is that we would be “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation”. And His purpose for us is to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). To live by God’s good purpose, we are to respect all people, love others, put God first and pray for those who teach or lead us—even when something doesn’t seem good to us (v.17). These kinds of actions may challenge people who see us. When we react to ‘bad’ things by trusting God, they may well want to get to know Him too. By Ames Chen
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