Have you ever been around someone who was very excited? Perhaps their favorite team won. Maybe they experienced the birth of a child or another life event that was joyous. Maybe they got a promotion at work. Whatever the circumstance when you are around someone with that kind of enthusiasm it can be contagious. I often picture Peter, the disciple this way. He sure sounds excited when he writes the beginning of I Peter. Read his words and see if you can find some excitement as well. 

 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

That is writing from someone who is truly excited about his faith. When we have that level of excitement about anything others become interested. Peter was a great evangelist for the early church and I wonder if his secret power wasn’t his excitement for Jesus. Others want to experience and know that kind of excitement as well. When we talk about Jesus with excitement like that others are immediately interested and want to be a part of what is going on. Allow yourself to be overwhelmed with the goodness and love of Jesus and then take that excitement and enthusiasm and share it with others. Watch and see what God does with that excitement in other people’s lives!

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave