1 Peter 5

2015-08-01 (Saturday)
"Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example." (1 Peter‬ ‭5:2-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

The first part of this passage is written to elders and leaders of the church. But I believe it is for everyone who is a leader with people under their care as well. I'm talking about myself and the youth ministry. Verse 2 tells us that God entrusted the flocks to us. Entrusted means it's a big responsibility. We need to know that despite our inequities, God had chosen to place the lives of His sheep in our hands to feed and to care for each of them. And He hopes for us to do that willingly out of our affection towards Him, not because of anything else. He used grudgingly here. I thought of the way sometimes our teachers or ppl placed in our authority may have treated us~ but God is saying, "Hey, don't go doing to your sheep what those people did wrong to you just cos it's payback time. Who would learn to do good and bless others who do bad to them then? If you aren't teaching them that."

Don't take care of your sheep because you wanna claim credit for it too~ or for example, I'm only doing this cos that person can give me the glory I deserve. So i can brag to my mentors or peers, "hey look, my sheep is growing fat, why yours all so skinny?" But we do it cause we are excited to serve God seeing how they grow and learn~ and how you learn from God using you in their growth stage! I've been super blessed by Malini and Brenda's growth and I know that none of it was done by Angela or myself, it was purely God and God alone~ Yes, He used us to teach but who taught us? Isn't it also from Him? Humbling but so inspiring^^

We don't take care of our sheep just so that we can boss them around. "Hey, buy me water, I'm your leader leh, not you pay then I pay ah?" If we want to be respected, we gotta learn how to respect others first. You can't receive what you're unwilling to give to others too. If we wanna build a culture, we gotta start from changing our own ways, because we cannot change others but ourselves. People react to change, so when we change, they will change as well. Leading by example is the best way to show what the characteristics of Jesus is like to our sheep.

"In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation." (‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:10‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

We can put our hope on the eternal! God promised to put us on a firm foundation after we have suffered a while on earth! We always have smth we can learn when we are suffering smth. If we don't think we've learnt or that we have anything to learn, then we have just closed our heart to what God can do in tough times~ Love always hopes. Hope means we know that something better is coming and it's not the end now cos there is hope. Hope always spurs people to be positive! And positivity allows us to keep hanging on to what we know is gonna come after this suffering~