Father, I desperately plead for Your consistency in my life. Recently I just can’t get it together. Getting up and at it in the wee hours of the morning needs to be an every day occurrence. Too many things crowd in and take over when I don’t, daily, take time – significant time –to be with You. Help me, Father. I am weak and I must rely on Your strength. I am an overcomer only through You.
1 Peter 3:19-20 (<<click here)
Lord, this in one of those passages with which we struggle. Bible scholars struggle with it. They stab at it trying to grasp its meaning but there is no clarity in the particulars.
I really like what my Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation has to say.
In any case, the passage shows that Christ’s Good News of salvation and victory is not limited. While some Bible passages such as this one may remain unclear, we can discover certain truths from them along with the context of the rest of Scripture. In this passage we discover that: (1) God speaks. While we puzzle over what, where, and how, we can see that God is communicating to the world. (2) God triumphs. Christ victoriously preached, indicating his power, control, and transcendence over all creation. (3) God saves. God exerts himself to rescue those who desire him. This mysterious passage tells us at least this much – and that is much indeed.
Lord, these kinds of passages keep us humble – they keep us in our place. Too often we like to think that we have You all figured out – but I am grateful that we don’t. We can’t put You in a box marked “DONE.” You are almighty and all-knowing – we are not. We cannot know everything this side of eternity.
Paul puts it succinctly in 1 Corinthians 13:12,
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Lord, it is enough to know You speak, you triumph, and You save. Amen.
Jan 20th, Fri, 6:22 am
