Day 2: 1 Peter 1:1-2 - More Than Meets the Eye

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Verse 2 in the NIV translation says "Grace and peace be yours in abundance." This means that there is enough grace and peace to go around endlessly. There is enough grace and peace to satisfy your soul and then you find that there is still more. What a wonder hope that Peter has for the believers that are scattered in the lands.

The watch metaphor is well-said. It's easy to take simple things for granted and not appreciate their true beauty and value. God is something that is so wonderful that we should be left in awe of all His glory. That's why He is deserving of our worship. There is so much that God is doing in the background that we may never know until the end of our lives. I think that's probably why I appreciate the 20/20 hindsight that often comes after a particular trial or season in life. Who am I to put God in a box and say to Him, "You are only this and not able to go beyond my wildest dreams." If God is able to give us an abundance of grace and peace, wouldn't He (as a Father) give so much more?

As we face many trials and go through various seasons of life, we have to remember that it is ALL part of the sanctifying process. There is a purpose for all that God does whether we understand it or not. Actually, we cannot fully understand it all but we need to still trust in Him. As we trust in Him, then grace and peace can be multiplied in us.

I was reminded of this last week when my father was lost. I was filled with anxiety and fear for his life. As I prayed, God reminded me that my father was not a "needle in a haystack" (which I was thinking), but that God knew where he was in that exact moment. As I reaffirmed my trust in Him, I had much peace about the whole situation. Thankfully, he was found and I was reminded that God can be trusted.

When we wake up in the morning, dozens of things (some very good things) fight for our undivided attention. The morning sports news. All the tasks ahead of us for the day and how to increase our value in our accomplishments. People we're going to be facing and how to please them and increase our value in the eyes of the world. Getting the kids up, well-fed, well-parented, and asleep safely.

There seems to be a biblical principle, a way that God seems to have pleasure in working, in that He is pleased to squeeze, stretch, test, allow calamity and stress to fall upon His children, so that they might know how to cling to Him, trust Him, decrease so that He might increase, to taste and see His goodness, to trust Him in the storm, to gaze upon His beauty and His grace that abounds in deepest (not shallow) waters. It's the very thing we grumble about to Him. But when we see His glory, we're awestruck and speechless at His tender and faithful love toward us. We need to see it. We need to see Him. We need to see Him. We need to see and gaze upon Him and know that He is God.

I think "billions of actions" is really an understatement. We can't even fathom the masterful orchestration that only a truly sovereign and omniscient God could enact.

I think the online magazine The Behemoth in general does an excellent job of bringing about an awe and appreciation for just how amazing God is. From a recent article about the occurrence of the Fibonacci sequence in nature:

"God created plants with a mechanism in place to minimize the amount of work they have to do simply to remain alive. In point of fact, he gave them a mechanism that allows survival in the first place. When God called his creation “good” in Genesis, he didn’t just mean that it looked good. The systems he put in place to allow nature to thrive were also “good.” These systems get the job done.

God cared enough about his creation to build in systems that make even the lowest forms of life able to survive and thrive with maximum efficiency. What does this say about God’s care for us, whom he values more than the trees? Consider the lilies again."

(from http://www.christianitytoday.com/behemoth/2016/issue-48-may-12-2016/how-plants-count.html?share=bKQda14zZbA6%2b5DdC3LS3ZhAojxMQWBZ )

Another article that comes to mind about sports and probability:

"Vern S. Poythress argues in Chance and the Sovereignty of God that chance and probability, as we experience them, display God’s faithfulness and regularity working in harmony with his creativity. When we frame a team’s situation as “against the odds”, we make probability an enemy of sorts. But the weight of reality, that nine times out of ten the Hail Mary throw won’t work, is actually good. It’s good that the sun rises each morning, that the lightbulb in my well house should last through the winter, and that a team playing better than its opponent for 59 out of 60 minutes wins the game. God is faithful, and things work the way He orders.

But things don’t always work like Deist clockwork. As important as it is to appreciate the norms of God’s reign, exulting in His surprises is just as foundational to the faith. Every step in the march toward redemption is improbable, from parted seas to virgin conceptions to hardened sinners coming undone in their pew."

(from http://christandpopculture.com/touchdown-jesus-what-are-the-odds-that-god-is-a-seahawks-fan/ )