Feeding the Sheep - Blessed Life 6
1 Peter 3:9
[This is the 36th message of this series]
This lesson is intended for mature believers (or adulting believers). For a more orderly study, please go through all the previous messages first, if you haven't yet.
1 Peter
[This will be the 6th of a series within a series]
Living the Blessed Life
Peter instructed the first church (among other things) to repay evil with good.
Burning Coals
Apostle Paul said the same thing to the 1st church in the City of Rome. Scriptures likened repaying bad with good to heaping coals of fire upon their heads.
Romans 12:20
Blessing others who do us wrong is a sure sign of a blessed life. Revenge, retaliation, payback should not be part of the new life and the believer's playbook.
If anything this is straight out of the enemy's bag of tricks.
Bitter Life
The enemy of God wants us to be bitter at people and ultimately to be angry at God.
Bitterness leads to rage, rage leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, hatred leads to wrath, and wrath leads to murder. And murder leads to death.
We normally do not just wake up one day, wanting to murder someone. This process will take a lot of days that we have to wake up to.
This is basically why Scriptures tell us:
In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27)
The enemy of God wants us to be bitter at people and ultimately to be angry at God.
Bitterness leads to rage, rage leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, hatred leads to wrath, and wrath leads to murder. And murder leads to death.
We normally do not just wake up one day, wanting to murder someone. This process will take a lot of days that we have to wake up to.
This is basically why Scriptures tell us:
In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27)
Anger Happened
The blessed life is intended to be a happy life. It is a wonderful life. It is not a bitter life. It is not an angry life.
We let these emotions and negativity slide off and not stick to us, weigh us down and lead us to a path we shouldn't take.
Jesus didn't teach hate. He taught us to love our enemies and not to worry.
Living the blessed life is not about worrying about what other people do to us. The blessed life is about what we do for others.
We cannot control how others will conduct themselves. And why should we? We check our own hearts and look at how we conduct our own affairs.
When our affairs are in order, the blessed life is evident.
More on living the blessed life on the next lessons of this series.
Living the blessed life is not about worrying about what other people do to us. The blessed life is about what we do for others.
We cannot control how others will conduct themselves. And why should we? We check our own hearts and look at how we conduct our own affairs.
When our affairs are in order, the blessed life is evident.
More on living the blessed life on the next lessons of this series.
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