Passage Read: 1 Peter 1-2
Meditation Verse: 2:11
Thought
Peter keeps saying the same thing in different ways: We need to live holy lives and put away sinful ways. God will judge us impartially. We have been redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus. And here, our sinful desires war against our soul. They are not bad things that we should try to stop, they are evil things that are trying to destroy us. They not inconveniences or little mistakes, they are enemies relentlessly working to deaden our spirit, silence our conscience and cool our faith until it is meaningless. Our evil desires are deceiving us in order to destroy us. And many former believers or apparent believers have fallen prey to their evil desires and abandoned the faith to their own destruction.
Application
It is not how I start that matters most, but how I finish this race called the Christian life. I need to maintain or increase the faith I had when I first believed, that zeal for God, His Word and His ways. I need to hold firmly to the end that confidence I had at first! There are many things that war against my success, many things that seek to derail me, distract me and destroy me. The nearest and most constant hate-filled companion is my own flesh and its evil desires. I have to take every desire and impulse and judge it against the clear commands and desires of God for me as revealed in His Word. If it doesn't line up, if God's Word speaks against it, it is an enemy that needs to be silenced and rejected. Really, if it is not an impulse or desire that brings godly benefit to others or pleases God, it is my enemy. As a believer, I'm called to do good to all people, to honor all in authority over me, to live a holy and pure life in imitation of Jesus. Any desire that doesn't line up with that, I need to reject as an enemy seeking my destruction. No quarter, no compassion.