Today’s devotional comes from Max Lucado’s Grace For The Moment
Set Apart
The Spirit produces the fruit of
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Galatians 5:22-23
In the third century, St. Cyprian wrote to a friend named Donatus:
This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden. . . . But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out . . . you know very well what I would see; brigands on the high road, pirates on the seas, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please the applauding crowds. . . .
Yet in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. . . . They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians. . . .
What a compliment! A quiet and holy people. . . .
Quiet. . . . Not obnoxious. Not boastful. Not demanding. Just quiet. . . .
Holy. . . . Set apart. Pure. Decent. Honest. Wholesome. . . .
The Inspirational Study Bible
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I liked the compliment that Max noted (I wish we lived more like that these days), but was more impressed with the next sentence: They are despised and persecuted, but they care not.
What an incredible way to live? I struggle to imagine it, partly due to the fact that we are not persecuted and despised to the level they were, at least not yet.
But also, I think we struggle with the last sentence, which I think is the reason they did not care about the previous. They have overcome the world.
What does it really mean to overcome the world?
I think for me, these days, it has to do with Paul’s “Blessed Hope”.
Something for us to ponder…
May Peace Be With You!
myBlessedHope 