Stick Your Neck Out

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"Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?" —1 Peter 3:13

Bible Reading

1 PETER 3:13-17

Devotional

The grace of God makes us quiet and modest, but also passionate for what is right. God's grace restrains us from being loud and self-assertive. But God's Spirit does give us a zeal for righteousness.

Christians must have strong convictions about right and wrong. For us it is not enough to hold the opinion that crime does not pay. That's TV morality. We must be deeply persuaded that righteousness pays everlasting dividends.

When you believe in God, you must dare to stick out your neck for what is right. Whatever is right and true and good comes from God. Therefore the pursuit of righteousness, truth, and goodness is from God. It is carried on through God, and it leads to God. Why be timid if you walk in the way of God himself?

Some kids keep mum when crimes are committed in school. They are nice kids. They believe that crime doesn't pay. But they don't believe that righteousness pays either.

There are still plenty of "good citizens" who do not participate in crime. But they don't believe it is their business to start a crusade for righteousness either.

The lukewarm attitude of decent but unbelieving citizens is understandable. Their main concern, after all, is to mind their own business. That's the scope of their calling. But Christians are cut out of a different cloth. We have been addressed by God. He has laid his hand on us. He has put his Spirit in us. If we are ever lukewarm about right and wrong, truth and falsehood, we are denying our Lord.

God wants and creates people who do right for no other reason than that it is right. And if we are hurt while we are doing right, we are not really harmed. The only time we suffer real evil is when we do evil or refuse to do right.

REFLECTIONS

What might "sticking your neck out for God" look like at work? At a game? At school? With your friends?

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Several times I've had to "stick my neck out for God." It hasn't been easy and its cost me friendships and it has also caused me to have a poor grade in a class before. There was a time in High School that I can think of very clearly when I did what was right and got in trouble for it. Granted, I was not the ideal student, I caused a fair amount of strife in some of my teachers lives, as I used to be quite unruly. Once I realized what life was really about (it was not about me, it was about living for Christ), I started to stand up more openly about what I believed in.

In High School, I was hanging out with a friend of mine, who was notorious for hating Christians and anyone who said they believed in God. She didn't realize I did because at that time, I was not walking closely with the Lord and I hid my light under a bushel, if you will. So one day, I finally just asked her, what she would think if I told her I was a Christian, and she stopped in her tracks and said, we couldn't hang out anymore. I told her, well I guess we should part ways because I can't deny it, I am a Christian. We were still civil after that and she didn't hold any sort of animosity towards me, she just chose not to hang out with me.

Another time, in High School, I was doing a paper on Abortion and how its wrong and not just for religious sakes. I carefully wrote out my 6 page report and made everything as it should be. It had footnotes, quotes, statistics, personal thoughts, appeal to the reader, etc. I got a D on my report. When I went to my teacher she said that my paper did not have any fact to it, that it was all hearsay and biased opinion. I sat down with her and showed her my research and how it was not just from Pro-Life organizations, some things were from Planned Parenthood themselves - she raised my grade to a C but wouldn't budge. She said, I shouldn't have chosen this topic but since part of the grade was reading it in front of the class, I had a huge conviction that I needed to cover the topic. It was relevant to our age group and not many people hear a clear and concise argument against abortion in school. It was a few days after the class where someone told me that they had changed their minds about abortion and realized how wrong it was, just from my paper. God blessed my struggles and gave me a more rewarding end to a stressful situation.

God has given us the Holy Spirit to be with us until we are called into Glory. Why would we not live with boldness? If God is for us who can be against us? We cannot live our lives afraid of not being politically correct. We have to stand up for what it true and right. God grows our hearts and our desires to match His and He is passionate and seeks truth and righteousness, so we should be seeking the same thing. Its something I am constantly being reminded of, as I plan to do missions work the rest of my life. Whether it be transporting goods into China or simply being a Native English Teacher with the ability to express my beliefs in certain circumstances, I have been given the "green light" to do what is right and what is good. To stand up for what is true and what is right. I pray that we will seek God and ask for boldness in our walk with Him and that we will not stand down against those that will seek to disprove truth. Grace&Peace.