Welcome to a year in the Bible with Daily Grace. My name is Kristen and my name is Katie and we want to spend a few minutes a day with you walking through the New Testament one chapter at a time.

This year we will fix our gaze upon Christ so that we may know Him not only with our minds but with our hearts.

Together we will learn that who Jesus is changes everything. Welcome back to a year in the

Bible with Daily Grace. My name is Kristen, and we are going through First Peter as we journey on our

year-long study of the New Testament. Today, we are in First Peter 4. As we start, I'm going to ask you to put

yourselves in the shoes of Peter's audience today.

Take a moment to imagine what life might have been like as a Christian dispersed from your home,

living in a brand new city, under continued persecution from the Roman government.

And not only the government, but fellow townspeople. Your faith is misunderstood.

Your neighbors are surprised you'd not join them in their wild living. They think you're

antisocial. They slander your family and misrepresent your faith. Following Christ,

your life looks different than that of the world around you. You want to be proud of being a Christian, but if you're honest, persevering is hard.

Sometimes it doesn't feel worth it.

Sometimes you forget why you're persevering in the first place.

Perhaps Peter's readers were feeling some of these same feelings.

Putting ourselves in their shoes helps us understand

Peter's instructions and encouragement. In today's chapter, 1 Peter 4, Peter calls his audience

to model their suffering after Christ and to live for God's glory. Our scripture today begins with

therefore. In view of Christ's sufferings, which Peter described in chapter 3,

Peter calls these Christians to arm themselves with the same understanding of Christ,

who was put to death but was made alive in the spirit.

So too, their sins have been put to death, and they now live in the spirit of God.

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