Today, I'm going to take a break from reflecting on a prayer and share with you a prayer of John Baillie. I think we all can make it our own prayer as we begin this day.“ETERNAL Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of you, let my first impulse be to worship you, let my first word be your Name, let my first action be to kneel before you in prayer.
Read MoreAnother prayer we are going to reflect on is, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Pet. 1:2). Peter began his first epistle with the basically same benediction: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you” (1 Pet. 1:2). You can see that the benediction in 2 Pet. is an expanded version, which has this addition at the end: “in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” In this version, Peter not only prays for grace and peace to be multiplied to us but also shows us the divine means by which God’s grace and peace are to be multiplied—as we grow “in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
Read MoreLet’s reflect on Peter’s short prayer: “To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (5:11). There is a similar one in 4:11: “To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” You can see that they are pretty much the same (except that the one in 4:11 ascribes glory to God as well as dominion). Both of these escribe eternal dominion to God. I’m going to focus on the one in 5:11.
Read MoreLet us finish our reflection on Peter’s prayer in 1 Pet. 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Yesterday, we talked about how God’s power guards us through faith by nurturing our faith through His Word. Today, let’s talk about another way, which Peter mentions in the following verses: by testing (or, proving) the genuineness of our faith (vv. 6-9).
Read MoreLet us continue our reflection on Peter’s prayer in 1 Pet. 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Last week, we talked about the living hope, to which we are born again. This living hope is to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading and is kept in heaven for us. Not only that, we ourselves are guarded by God’s power for the heavenly inheritance. How does God guard us? What does He do with His power to guard us?
Read MoreWe are reflecting on Peter’s prayer in 1 Pet. 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Yesterday, we talked about the heavenly inheritance, to the hope of which God caused us to be born again. Today, let’s talk about the assurance we have for our final possession of this glorious inheritance.
Read MoreWe are reflecting on Peter’s prayer in 1 Pet. 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Yesterday, we reflected on the living hope, to which we are born again. It is called a living hope because it is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is not overcome by sin and death.
Read MoreWe are reflecting on Peter’s prayer in 1 Pet. 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Yesterday, we took great comfort in God’s “great mercy,” which is greater than all our needs and miseries. We also talked about how God, according to His great mercy, caused us to be born again as heavenly citizens. Let’s talk a little more about this new birth.
Read MorePeter’s second prayer is found in 1 Pet. 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Peter blesses the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we can see both Christ’s humanity (“the God... of our Lord Jesus Christ”) and His divinity (“the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”). Then, he gives the reason for blessing God in the rest of his prayer. So, let us meditate on it.
Read MoreWe have gone through Paul’s prayers in the New Testament. Now, we want to survey Peter’s prayers and draw encouragement and lessons from them. The first one we will consider is, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you” (1 Pet. 1:2). This is a benediction. This benediction formula—namely, extending God’s grace and peace to the recipients of the letter—is regularly used by Paul: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:7 and also in 1 Cor. 1:3, 2 Cor. 1:2, Gal. 1:3, Eph. 1:2, Phil. 1:2, Col. 1:2, etc.). As you can see, Peter’s benediction is much shorter and somewhat generic: he does not mention the source of grace and peace as Paul does—God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; it is assumed.
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