Praise to God for a Living Hope

I began reading 1 Peter this morning and for those of you who don't know what the book of 1 Peter is about, it's about 'Walking the Talk." Transformation-the process of becoming holy-begins in your mind. In this book, Peter shows us how to begin to think differently, which will affect your behavior. We all make split-second decisions to do right or wrong in any given moment. To choose right, we must learn to be obedient to God, which will give us an appetite for being good. This kind of obedience will create radical changes in your relationships.

Today I want to give you hope. I want to give you hope through the scripture. Not through what I say. I think hope is something that we must always have. I can't imagine living my life and not having any type of hope on a daily basis. It's that time of year when we all need to be reminded of hope. For a lot of people, you might be hanging to the edge of your New Years resolutions. You might need hope to get through it. It's also the time of year where everything might seem a little gray. It's the start of a new semester and it's difficult to get into a solid flow of things. The weather is also a little gray. At this time of year it's either a blizzard and freezing cold or cloudy and rainy. I hope that this scripture from 1 Peter that I am about to share can get you in the 'transformation,' mindset. I hope that it reminds you off what our hope should be in and that hope is in God and our salvation.

1 Peter 1:3-9: Prasie be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 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. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trails. 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. 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, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 

Praise be to God! He is so good! In his mercy he gave us a new new living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our inheritance because of that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Have hope in that this morning. Our inheritance is kept in heaven for you. I really like this part. "Through faith, we are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that God will reveal." While on earth we suffer trails every single day, those have some so that we can prove the genuineness of our faith. Verses 8 & 9 are in bold because of how important those are.

I hope and pray that you were encouraged by this scripture today and that it challenged you to transform your mind. You are loved!