Reality
In our world today, the reality of being a Christian living in the middle of a world that denounces, excludes and sometimes hates us is something we have to face. We feel it in politics, our schools, our workplaces, our families and sometimes even within our friend groups. It brings us to our knees as we cry out to God in our pain and hurt. Should we try to escape? Should we build a wall around ourselves and associate with only those that believe like us? Should we stand tall and proud and proclaim our truth regardless of what others think? Should we turn a cold shoulder to all those that denounce us? How do we live in this reality?
I have read between the lines of what people say enough to know this: too often we live as though there are two realities at work in our world- God’s reality and ours. When we pray we often pray as though we are asking Him to step into our reality and fix things or stop the suffering and then He steps back. Over and over again. Sound familiar? This is all the problem. We do not think, act and walk as though we are living in God’s reality and He is guiding, instructing and planning our lives in it. If we did, we would walk so close with Him as strangers in this world because He is our Redeemer, Savior and our only hope. Our reality is that we are living in God’s reality- not the one that we are creating for ourselves. We do not ask God to step onto our reality- we die to ourselves, shifts our minds and learn to think, act and walk as apprentices to Jesus in this world.
Peter has a lot to say about these things as his letter of 1 Peter is one of the first that outlines the reality of the struggles in the church with society. But rather than telling us to walk away from this reality, create an entirely new one or just hide until Heaven, he calls us to live steadfastly before God with faithfulness, holiness and love inside of the world that hates us. Will that steadfastness lead to suffering? By all accounts, yes. But if we seek to genuinely understand this persecution we can face it head on with faith and hope in who we are because of who God is. The question is not: will we suffer in this world because of our faith? Because the answer is yes. The question is rather: when we suffer in this world because of our faith, how do we do it with a mind full of understanding and a heart of complete hope?
My hope is that through this study God speaks to us in a powerful way about who He is, who we are and how we live in this world with power and faithfulness to Him in the midst of persecution and suffering.
