February 27, 2022 - 1 Peter 2:12

“Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.” 1 Peter 2:12 NLT

Lord, we want to be a clear reflection of you to the unbelievers around us. So many unbelievers want nothing to do with the church because of experiences they have had with Christians. This is such a completely sad thing. Lord, we never want anything in our life to push someone away from you. Help us live a life that draws people towards you. Let your presence be so evident in our lives.

Help us not to live the life of a hypocrite. We want our words and our actions to line up. When we mess up, let us be quick to apologize. We don’t want people to see us as perfect but as people who are doing our best to live in your ways. Let them see people who are loving, joyful, humble, and quick to make things right when we fail. Show us any area of our lives in which we are not clearly reflecting you. Purify us and remove anything that is a blemish in the reflection of you. We don’t want it in our lives.

Lord, if we are wrongly accused, help us not to raise up in pride and lose our example in trying to defend ourselves. Let us trust in you as our defender. We want to walk out in honor and not let pain or anger dictate our responses. Let our every word and action be carefully weighed with you. We want to walk out in obedience to what you are asking of us and nothing more. Help us realize that it is not our job to make things right, but to walk in love and obedience, then trust you to make things right. Help us to walk out in love towards those who dislike us and purposefully try and push our buttons. Give us an abundance of patience when needed. Thank you that you understand and are with us to help us walk this out.

In Jesus name, amen.