Walk Boldly With Jesus

Keep Your Hearts At Attention

1 Peter 3:13-15 “If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.”

I decided to use the message translation today as I like how it puts the verse in more modern day terms and sometimes makes it easier to understand, or easier to apply it to our current day and time.  This verse starts out by saying that if we do are doing good with our whole heart than nothing can stop us.  Who would want to stop us from doing good?  Then it goes on to say that even if we suffer for doing good, we are still better off than if we did evil.  Yesterday we talked about how God doesn’t want us to repay evil with evil and if we instead repay evil with blessing then we will inherit a blessing.  This verse is saying it’s worth it.  Doing good is always better than the alternative, even if it is not easy for you.  

Next it goes on to say that we shouldn’t worry about those that are against us.  How many times have you heard that while you were growing up?  I was picked on quite a bit when I was a child.  I was from a big family, I didn’t have the nicest clothes, I really liked sleep, so sometimes I would forgo brushing my hair or changing my clothes if it meant that I could sleep for 5 extra minutes.  I don’t really blame the kids that picked on me, as being a kid is hard and we are all just doing the best we can.  However, being picked on a lot meant that my parents often told me to just ignore the other person.  To not let what they say bother me.  They will stop saying it if they realize it doesn’t bother you.  This makes sense and I have probably even said it to my boys.  However, it really doesn’t help the situation.

This verse isn’t just telling us to ignore the other person, it’s telling us to keep our hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master.  In other words, don’t let those that are being unkind distract us from our real focus, which is Jesus.  The enemy loves to distract us and get us thinking about anything else.  He doesn’t like it when we think of Jesus because then we think of love and joy and happiness.  If we were constantly thinking about and adoring Jesus we wouldn’t have time to be worried about what others were thinking about us.  

This next line is actually the one line that stuck out to me the most. “Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy.”  This is one that I struggled with for a long time.  I went to religious education when I was a child and even in my teen years.  I went to a Catholic Church my whole life and I knew the beliefs that I held.  However, I did not always know why we believed them or any foundations for them.  When I was asked by people of other faiths things like “Why do Catholics worship Mary” or “Who gave priests the right to forgive our sins” I didn’t know what to say.  When I was an adult I wanted to understand my religion more, so I started to study it.  I did Bible studies and I went to classes that talked about why we believe what we believe.  It has been really beneficial and I have learned a lot over the years.  

The Catholic Faith has been around for over 2,000 years.  It is one that Jesus started and then appointed His disciples to go out and share it with the world.  There is a reason for everything that we believe and it helps if we know what that is.  If you understand the things that you believe you can get into conversations with people and not get so flustered.  If you know why you believe what you believe then you can help spread the good news to others.  We are all called to evangelization.  This is something that I was not happy to learn as the idea of going out and talking to others about religion always scared me.  However, the more you learn, the more you want to talk about it.  I think the reason it scared me so much before is because I was picturing going up to perfect strangers and starting up a conversation about Jesus.  This may be what some of us are called to and that is great if you can do that.  I think some of us are being called to spread the gospel to those around us.  Do you talk about Jesus in your homes or with your friends?  

I remember the first time my good friend Kath and I had a discussion about God.  It was so nice.  I had talked about God in Bible studies and at prayer group, and I enjoyed it.  However the more I learned and the more I studied, the more I began to talk about God or scripture in my every day life as well.  I did not have a lot of friends at the time that were the interested in talking about God, and after a few conversations with Kath I realized that is what I was missing, that I didn’t know I was missing.  I wanted to be surrounded by people that didn’t mind when I talked about God.  If you don’t have a peer group that you can talk about God with, you are really missing out.  My workout group is comprised of 8 Christian women.  We are not all the same religion, we are all very different in jobs and upbringings.  Yet, we all love Jesus and we can talk about Him all we want.  We don’t hesitate to ask each other to pray for us or to celebrate and give God all the glory when something amazing happens.  When we struggle, we don’t just sit around and complain.  We raise each other up, send each scripture or worship songs.  We spread God’s love to each other.  

If you are not sure why you believe what you believe what you believe, I urge you to join a bible study, listen to podcasts, find a church community where you are surrounded by others that love Jesus.  The Bible in a Year Podcast with Father Mike Schmidt is a great way to learn scripture.  It is only 20-30 minutes a day, he does all the reading and the explaining and all you have to do it listen.  I have learned so much from Him and from scripture.  If you do not have friends or family that you can openly talk about your faith with the I recommend trying to find some.  You grow so much when you have a faith community to share your growth with.  Being surrounded by people who share your love of Jesus is so much fun.  I highly recommend it to one and all.

Next, the verse says, “Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath.”  I love this translation.  What this is saying is that we should take the higher road.  We should be kind, even if others aren’t.  Then when people want to accuse of something, there is nothing they can say.  They have nothing to accuse us of because we haven’t done anything wrong.  I like how in this translation is says that when people throw mud, it won’t stick. That is quite the visual.  I also like when it says that they will realize that they’re the ones who need a bath.  Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.  Even if nothing sticks, our enemies still tend to throw stuff just to see if others will believe it.  It usually takes awhile for them to realize that they are the ones that need to change.  At least if we are keeping our hearts focused on Jesus then we will have stay out of trouble ourselves.  We can leave the rest up to the Lord.  

The verse ends with, “It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.”  This sums it all up pretty nicely.  Jesus suffered for our sins.  How are we going to repay Him for that?  Can we choose to do good, even if it means we may suffer?  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to choose to do the right thing, even when it is difficult, even if it means we may suffer.  Lord, you sent your only son to us so that He could die for our sins.  Please help us to not let that be in vain.  Help us to repay that with choosing to do good. Lord, give us a desire to learn more about You and more about our faith.  Help us to learn all we need to know to explain our reasons for hope to all that ask.  We want to spread your gospel, your word, your love, peace and joy to all.  We need your help though Lord.  Please give us all the grace we need to do this.  We love you Lord, you are amazing.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Do Not Repay Evil With Evil

1 Peter 3:8-9 “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.  Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

I came across this verse while I was doing a study about the 9 fruits of the Spirit.  The first fruit of the Spirit is Love, or at least it is in this series.  This month I have been learning all about what the Bible says about love and also how I define love.  My spiritual director asked me that very same question last month, so when I read it in this study I felt like it was a sign that I was on the right track. It has been a really interesting study.  If you want to check it out you can find it on Amazon.  It is called the Nine Fruits of the Spirit; a devotion series by Robert Strand.  I think you may need to buy each one separate as I didn’t really see a set with all of them together when I looked.  

What stuck out to me most when I read this verse was the line in the middle.  It says, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.”  We do this so often, it’s like second nature.  We may think that we don’t, and we probably don’t want to, but we do it more than we would like.  Think about when you are driving in your car and someone cuts you off.  How do you react?  What about when you are checking out in line and the cashier is new and is taking a very long time.  How do you react in that circumstance?  What about when someone says something unkind to you?  Do you repay that with an unkind word back to them?  

I think this probably stuck out to me because I have been a little grumpier than usual lately.  Usually if people cut me off in traffic, I don’t mind that much.  I can put myself in their shoes and also I know that me getting upset at them and saying something to them while I am in my car and they are in their car doesn’t do anything to change the situation.  It might make me in a bad mood, but they have already moved on and they can’t hear anything I say in my car anyway.  However, if I say something unkind it will affect my mood.  Actually, you don’t even have to say it, you just have to think it and your mood is affected.  Isn’t that annoying?  Sometimes I get frustrated because I don’t say something, I just think it and then I get in a bad mood.  This is why it is so important to think about the things you tell yourself.  

It is important to check in with yourself on your thoughts, especially if you are irritated at something that someone has done to you.  Let’s use the idea of waiting in line as an example.  I am sure with the holiday seasons just ending, we can all remember waiting in line for something.  If we are waiting in the line and we are thinking that it is taking too long we can start to get angry at the people in front of us for buying too many things, we can get mad at the cashier for not knowing how to do her job, or for going really slow.  We can get upset over any number of things.  However, what will that do for us?  Would you rather be in line happily waiting, or angrily waiting?  There is a definite difference between the two.  There is a physical difference.  If you are angrily waiting in line, you are not in a good mood.  You probably have this tight feeling your stomach and you may even be rude to those around you.  If you are happily waiting, you are probably just looking around at the various things to buy while you wait.  You are pleasant to those around you and you feel great physically probably.  

We have the option at any time to choose how we feel.  Well, there is something called our initial reactions that we can’t choose.  Something happens and then we instantly feel a certain way about.  However, we get to decide if that is how we want to continue to feel, or if we want to change how we are feeling.  I have spent a lot of time working on my feelings.  The way that you feel is directly related to the story or meaning you are assigning to the circumstance.  Have you ever wondered why you react differently than others when certain things happen?  For instance, you and I could both be stuck in traffic and one of us could be sitting there getting angrier and angrier and the other one could be singing along loudly to music, or listening to a podcast.

I used to get very upset with traffic.  I would just sit in it and think about how late I was going to be and what that meant for whatever I was going to do.  If I was going to work I would then think how upset my boss would be, how I wouldn’t get my work done, etc.  My mind would just keep spiraling.  Then one day, after reading lots of books, I realized, my thinking all of this didn’t change the outcome.  Whether I sat there being upset about being stuck in traffic, or I used this new found time to catch up with a friend, sing with the radio, or listen to an audio book, I was still sitting in traffic and I would still get there at the same time.  Which way sounds like a better use of your time?  

I tell you all of this because it is the same with repaying evil for evil.  You will not feel better after you do it.  Actually most of the time you feel worse.  It may feel good in that initial moment when you said that unkind thing back to them when they totally deserved it.  Then the initial feeling wears off and you start to feel bad for saying it because you are a good person.  The Lord is telling us in this verse to be compassionate and to love one another.  He is not telling us to do this only when it is easy and only when we feel like it.  It says in Luke 6:32-33, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.”  If we can’t repay evil with evil, then what do we do when someone does something to us?

The next line in the verse addresses this.  It says, "On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”  This may not seem to make any sense.  You may be wondering why you would bless someone when they just did something unkind to you.  I can think of two really good reasons.  The first one is that God is telling us this is what He wants us to do in this verse.  He is telling us to repay evil with blessing.  The second is because you will feel so much better afterwards.  If you say or do something unkind in response then you will have that on your conscience and you will feel bad about it. However, if you bless that person then you won’t have anything negative on your conscience weighing you down.  

I remember one time at prayer group a woman was talking about how she was standing in line at the grocery store once and everyone in line was getting upset because the cashier was new and so she was really slow.  She said people were saying unkind things under their breath.  She said she was annoyed to and then she saw the cashiers face.  She was clearly overwhelmed and unhappy that she was going so slow.  My friend’s heart was filled with such compassion and she said she instantly said a prayer of blessing for that cashier.  She said now she does it every time she starts to get impatient with someone, well every time she remembers to.  My friend said doing this has helped her grow in compassion.  We never know what the other person is going through.  Maybe they are not really a mean person, they are just having a bad day.  Maybe something terrible just happened and they are acting out.  We don’t know what their motivation for being unkind was.  However, we can keep our motivations pure and just bless them instead of repaying evil for evil.  

God says we are called to do this so that we may inherit a blessing.  What do we inherit if we repay evil with evil?  I’m not sure, but it is nothing good I can guarantee that.  However, if we do as we are called to do and repay evil with a blessing then we will inherit a blessing.  It seems like it is worth the trade off.  What do you think?  Do you think the next time you want to repay evil with evil you can remember this verse and instead stop and say a quick blessing for that person.  It might not be automatic.  I still get annoyed initially when someone drives like a manic on the road, cuts me off, or does something unkind.  Then I try to stop my thoughts and remind myself to say a prayer for them.  Give it a try.  It honestly changes your whole mood.  It is really difficult to be angry with someone when you are praying for them.  Let’s spread kindness more.  Let’s try and let God’s love and light shine through us and through the darkness of evil.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to be compassionate and to love one another.  Help us to repay evil with a blessing instead of with evil.  Help us remember this in the moment when we want to respond unkindly.  Lord give us the power to overcome our desire to be unkind and to respond as you would respond.  Help us to shine your light on all those we come in contact with.  Help us to spread your love and peace to all those we meet.  Lord we are so very grateful for all that you do for us.  You are amazing and we love you.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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