Lectio Divina is the spiritual practice of inviting Christ to speak to us through the prayerful reading of His Word.

Following in the footsteps of ancient believers, we can navigate the beautiful complexities of the Bible with both courage and curiosity.

Before we move forward, take a few moments to prepare your heart, mind, and body for this sacred experience.

Breathing in deeply identify any thoughts or feelings that may hinder you from yielding to the Holy Spirit’s will.

Right now.

Breathing out, slowly release your burdens and anxieties to the Lord

Jesus.

You are welcome in this place.

Speak to me.

Your servant is listening.

Today we will follow the four stages of Lectio Divina read, reflect, respond, and rest as we pray through a section of Saint Peter’s letter to believers living in exile.

First Peter chapter one, verses three through nine and 13 through 15.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now we live with great expectation and we have a priceless inheritance,

an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you are pure and undefiled beyond the reach of change and decay.

And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation which is ready to be revealed.

On the last day for all to see.

So be truly glad.

There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.

These trials will show that your faith is genuine.

It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold.

Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.

So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor.

On the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world, you love him even though you have never seen him.

Though you do not see him now.

You trust him and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.

The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

Saint Peter’s first audience truly knew what it was like to live as pilgrims.

Persecution had pushed them out of their homes into lands where they lived as foreigners.

Friends and family had abandoned them, and places they once considered safe and familiar had become hostile and foreign.

Writing from Rome, Saint Peter presents these believers with a paradoxical message of encouragement.

He challenges them to embrace the margins which they had been forced to call home, and to do it with true gladness and great expectation, as this site where God would meet them and refine their faith.

Take a moment to reflect on the metaphor Peter uses in this passage.

He compares faith to gold, which must be refined in fire in order to become pure.

Can you relate your own faith journey to that metaphor?

Or is the idea of God using trials to form you?

Hard to accept God. I offer all I am to you.

Both the presentable and the hidden.

Refine me in the fires of your love, so that I may become more like Jesus today.

As we revisit the passage, listen for a word or phrase that the Holy Spirit is highlighting for you today.

First Peter chapter one, verses three through nine and 13 through 15.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now we live with great expectation and we have a priceless inheritance.

An inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power.

Until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

So be truly glad.

There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.

These trials will show that your faith is genuine.

It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold.

Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold, so when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor.

On the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world, you love him even though you have never seen him.

Though you do not see him now.

You trust him and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.

The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

What thought or image stood out to you as you listened to the passage?

Talk to God about it now.

Saint Peter’s call to rejoice is not a rejection of reality, and his appeal to the hope of heaven is not meant to minimize present circumstances is when he says there is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while, he is drawing a clear distinction between the temporary and the eternal in order to show how the reality of our salvation is not just for the future.

The hope we have in Christ will transform our present experiences if we allow it to take some time to talk to God about the hope you have.

Is it a theoretical hope for a distant future, or is it an active expectation for God to show up and transform your daily life?

In a way, this passage paints a portrait of two horizons, one whose light is fading and the other an eternal sunrise.

Our joy as followers of Jesus is rooted in that second eternal horizon, and radiates into every moment of this temporary life, though our priceless inheritance lasts beyond the ages.

We do not have to wait for the jubilee that it brings.

The same God who will welcome you into your heavenly home has made himself present on this very step of your pilgrimage.

Take a few moments to come before God with thanksgiving, both for the beauty of the present and for the eternal, perfect beauty of what is to come.

Now, having read, reflected on and responded to the Scripture.

Take some time to simply rest in Jesus who is present through God’s living Word.

There is nothing you have to say or do.

Just enjoy sitting in the Lord’s loving gaze.

As you step back into your pilgrimage with Christ.

You may find your footing, in the words of John Chrysostom, the patron saint of preaching, whose messages led him into his own exile.

What is our condition in this world?

We are like travelers who hasten to reach their native land.

But if we pass our lives in a foreign country, we must bear the difficulties as those who dwell in a place which is not their own.

Glory be to the father, to the son, and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

Amen.