Peter writes to groups of Believers spread out throughout modern day Turkey. This early Church leader who walked with Jesus seemed to look to continue shepherding the Flock with the revelation Jesus Himself left him with. His leadership can speak to us and serve us today so we have a truly rich thanksgiving, even when our pains may challenge us to even engage with family during the holiday season. May the grace in this message comfort and empower you as a change agent in your family.
Tough Familial Relationships
If you are like me, you may have some deeper trepidation about seeing some of your family. You may sense God’s deep love for all of humanity (John 3:16), but it is hard to believe anything could ever change in our most challenging relationships. But, God is holy and has touched you and me, and He can use you and me for His glory in these relationships. So, it starts with you living a holy life (1 Peter 1:13:16). God is going to judge the earth and there is hope for all who believe. We need to avoid overt sins and also covert ones. The covert ones here are rebellion amidst the plans of God on the Earth. Make no mistake, His plans are that all people come to a rich awareness of the hope in Jesus’ sacrifice and His Resurrection as King of kings and Lord of lords (2 Peter. 3:9). So, believe with me that God wants to touch the people we think are impossibly destitute, and put into practice the way of Jesus through preparation, engaging, and reflection during holiday gatherings.
Motivation for the Learning Circle Tool
The Learning Circle, from Joe and Tricia Rhodes, can help us and will inform both our preparation and reflection. Before you actually see this tool, I want to share how you can use it before, during, and after a family gathering.
Before a gathering you can use this tool to bring your pains and past events with a person to God, ask for His perspective while being in Community, and put a plan into place to practice the beliefs and behaviors you can use to honor God and difficult people. Remember, Peter was calling the Believers to honor Caesar (1 Pet. 2:17), talk about living for Jesus in relationship to difficult people. One need only use a search engine to research Caesar Nero to find out the challenges Christians faced in relationship with the Emperors of Rome.
Once you’ve gotten perspective and your discerned practice, you can then engage in gatherings in a way you perceive as safe for you but carrying the ministry of our suffering Messiah. You may get to express some of the pains you carry and you may not get to. But, you can carry God’s perspective of you and others amidst the challenging relationship(s). Fill up on His love with the Spirit flooding your soul and activating your Spiritual love muscles. The things God has done in you and in history can be your comfort, even if you don’t share any message but a life lived with God.
Finally, you may find you need to do more work to be holy after those gatherings. You can use the Learning Circle to do this as well. It’s all about, owning God’s perspective of God himself, you, and the other party. You may even find, that the work you did before your gathering allowed you to rise above family dysfunction and live a life that allowed for people’s questions about how God gives you your sustenance and abundant life. But, you may find the work is now more amplified. You can take some of the extra time off around the holidays (I pray you have some) to engage with God and go through as many follow up Learning Circles as you may need. After the gatherings and the Learning Circles, you can leave it in God’s hands, believing that the God who suffers with mankind is still at work to draw as many as possible to salvation and life in love with Him.
I want to encourage you to learn the tool, the Learning Circle and use it at least once, before and after your family gatherings this year. This tool is shown below and explained in a 9 min video teaching that you can access here.
May God shine for you and through you in your family this holiday. For Jesus!
The Learning Circle Tool
“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the [people living for the World] that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us”
(1 Peter 2:11-12, NIV 2011 w/ modification in brackets)
