Read Acts 2:14a, 36-41. Peter is preaching and the sermon “cuts to the heart of the people.” They feel convicted. They ask, “What should our response be to a resurrected God?” The answer for us is the same that Peter gave that day. Know that you are a beloved child of the God who calls for you to turn back when you have wandered astray. You can not go so far off the path of righteousness that God can’t forgive you, heal you, and make you whole.
In this passage, we find an invitation to believe that this Good News is for you and an invitation to allow God to work on your heart. How beautiful is that? No matter where we find ourselves, no matter what shame we feel, no matter how lost we think we are, God is right next to us.
Today, offer a prayer of repentance for all that takes you off-course from God’s will and find assurance in Peter’s words: “For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him (vs. 39).”
Read Psalm 116. In verse 6, we read, “The Lord protects the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.” This reminds me of a phrase Al often uses. “God protects the stupid.” There are many examples of choices I made in my youth that prove this point. I would like to think that I have outgrown my propensity towards stupidity as an adult, but that is not always the case. Oftentimes, I will say something without taking into consideration the harm my comment might do. Sometimes, I will fail to reach out to a person who needs a friend. Sometimes, my priorities get out-of-whack and I neglect to nurture important relationships with God and with others and with myself.
This psalm reminds us that no matter how simple we are – no matter what it is that binds us – insecurity, self-centeredness, apathy, bitterness, holding grudges – God, in infinite grace and mercy, continues to “deal bountifully” with us.
Offer a prayer of confession today, commit yourself to making better choices in your life, and rest in the promise of God’s forgiveness.
Read 1 Peter 1:17-23. This letter is addressed to people who live as outsiders in their community. Whether they were Jews who had become Christians, or foreigners who had moved into the area, or natives of another region who had converted to Christianity, they were regarded by the insiders as strangers, as other, and different. This letter calls them to embrace their otherness and live it out with utter commitment, seeing it not as a stigma, but as a priceless gift.
In what ways might following Jesus set you apart from the prevailing culture in which we live? What cultural trends today might be incompatible with the love to which we are called?
In prayer, consider those areas in your life where you might need to be less judgmental and more loving.
Read Luke 24:13-35. The journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus is about 7 miles. For most people, especially in that time and place, that wasn’t an unreasonable distance to walk. How much longer it must have seemed, though, when the person for whom they had given up everything to follow was gone, when disappointment and confusion were weighing on them. When Jesus shows up, he does more than just join them along the way. Jesus gets them to articulate what they experienced. “What things?” says Jesus.
It’s almost as if Jesus wants us to know that he won’t just show up, but he will help us to speak the truth of our pain and help us to make some sense of at least part of it. Jesus did more than quietly walk alongside these followers. He helped them to move from “we had hoped” to “the Lord is risen indeed!”
In prayer, consider those losses in your life – those things you’d hoped for – and open yourself to a different truth that Jesus might be speaking into that situation, relationship, etc.