“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by His power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.”
—1 Pet. 1:3-5 (NLT)
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone;
A new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
—2 Cor. 5:17-21 (NLT)
Prayer + Reflection
- Give thanks to God for redemption and a new life that is hidden in Christ (Col. 3:3).
- Pray for greater understanding of your new birth into the family of God, and for an uprooting of anything not planted by Him.
- Ask God for spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear beyond the physical and the audible.
- Pray for selfless, emboldened faith to speak truth in love and to pursue reconciliation of people to God and to one another.
