Wednesday; March 10

I Peter 3:15 is a favorite passage for many of us. When Peter challenges his readers, “… but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence …” we are reminded of our need to be able to defend our faith. Through the years, we have used this passage to prove that we need to be vocal about our beliefs as well as reminding us that we need to know what we believe and why. While the last part of the verse can be inspiring, the first part of the passage is challenging. Did you catch Peter’s direction to us to “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts”? When we dissect this statement, we are challenged to make sure that we do two things: First, we have to make it a point to identify Christ as Someone unique. Sanctify means to set apart or set something aside to demonstrate its uniqueness. When we specifically identify Jesus as special to us, we make the concerted effort to tell ourselves and demonstrate to the world that Jesus isn’t just a part of our lives, He is the most important part of our lives. Secondly, Peter instructs us to make sure that we understand Jesus is our Lord. It is great (and necessary) to think about Jesus as Someone who loves us enough to be our Savior; but He is also One who is powerful enough to be our Lord … our Master … our Boss. We give Him the keys to our heart, we turn our lives over to Him. Not only are we thankful to Him for what He has done, we are indebted to Him for who He is!
Let’s make it a point to understand what we believe, but let’s also understand the relationship we have with the One who is at the controls of our heart, mind and soul. When we do that, everything will fall into place for us.

Think About It!

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