Day 329 Bible Readings – Proverbs 19: 21 (ESV)

Ezekiel 47-48, 1 Peter 4, Proverbs 19: 13-22

Proverbs 19: 21 (ESV)

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

Verse 21 from Proverbs 19 gave me a chuckle because it so true. You can make up plan after plan in your mind, but the only plan that will work in the end is God’s plan. I have this wisdom so true in my own life. I had so plans for myself in high school and college, most of which never came true. In high school I wanted to be a lawyer with a CPA, so I could come back home and open up my own practice. Then in college I decided I wanted to be a language interpreter at the United Nations, so I took a language course. But two years after that I changed my mind after I heard a college alumni speak and disparage the U.N. Then I thought I wanted to work in advertising, so I changed my major. I remember going to some seminar before I left college, and we had to write down where we wanted to see ourselves in 20 years. I wrote down that I would have be living in New York City off Central Park West. Later when I did end up spending time in New York City, I decided I couldn’t live there because it was too crowded, and I didn’t think I could deal with riding the subway every day.

But if I study my life deeply, I am pretty sure that I was following God’s plan and not my own at least in the big things in life like career and where to live. If you asked me in college whether I would be reading the Bible every day and writing down my thoughts on what I’d read in a blog, I would have laughed. Reading the Bible every day was not on my bucket list. I mean it’s not like I didn’t want to read the Bible, because I did want to read it once from cover to cover. But only because my college theatre arts professor yelled at our whole class that we were missing all the references and homages in great literature because we were all Bible illiterate. But reading the Bible every day – NEVER! Yet here I am reading it every day and loving every minute of it, because I know I am fulfilling God’s purpose for my life.

Day 328 Bible Readings – 1 Peter 3: 8-9 (ESV)

Ezekiel 45-46, 1 Peter 3, Proverbs 19: 1-12

1 Peter 3: 8-9 (ESV)

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”

Verses 8 and 9 from 1 Peter 3 shows Peter telling the Church in modern-day Turkey to have unity as people of faith. I think these verses are so relevant for today as there seems to be so much divisiveness in the world. We need to have unity as people of faith. We are all different and we have many different beliefs and customs, but we need to choose unity as people of faith as our beliefs in God and Jesus is what united us. We cannot harm others when others wrong us. Peter tells us we need to bless them instead.

I love how Peter writes that as a person of faith you are called to always bless people, even the ones who do you harm. I find myself blessing people who won’t agree with me or whose politics I don’t agree with or do not understand. I bless them and I ask God to show and school me why I am not more neutral in my feelings towards those who don’t agree with me. I don’t have want to not like people who don’t agree with me, and I want God to show me how to love everyone more even those who seem like my enemies. I don’t know if I will ever have the loving heart of Jesus Christ, but I want to try. Jesus loved everyone, even those who despised and hated him. Christ is the example I want to follow on how to treat everyone in my life.

Day 327 Bible Readings – 1 Peter 2: 9-10 (ESV)

Ezekiel 43-44, 1 Peter 2 Proverbs 18: 17-24

1 Peter 2: 9-10 (ESV)

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Verses 9 and 10 from 1 Peter 1 tells people of faith that if you believe in Jesus Christ, you are part of the chosen race and part of the royal priesthood. We are God’s people who can tell the world about Jesus Christ who made us a part of God’s family. Peter tells before we believed in Jesus Christ, we were not a people. But belief in Jesus Christ has made us God’s people who can receive mercy, instead of a people who had not received mercy.

I love that because I belief in Jesus Christ, I have become part of the Chosen people, and God’s possession. I am part of the flock belonging to God, and when I am lost I know God will look for me and save me and rejoice that I am found and saved.

Day 326 Bible Readings – 1 Peter 1: 6-7 (ESV)

Ezekiel 41-42, 1 Peter 1, Proverbs 16: 7-16

1 Peter 1: 6-7 (ESV)

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

In verses 6 and 7 from 1 Peter 1, Peter tells the church in modern day Turkey that the purpose of trials in life is that God is testing the enduring quality of our faith. God doesn’t test us to know what kind of faith we have because he already knows these things. God tests our faith to show us what kind of faith we have and the strength of it. Without these tests, we would not know the quality of our faith and always be in doubt of it. But once you are tested, you will have visible proof in your own memory that your faith is strong and long lasting. These are memories you can hold onto when doubt enters your life. Knowing what kind of faith we have, will give us the strength to push away our doubts of Jesus Christ.