1 Peter 1:3-9
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,
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 trials.
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.
“He has given us new birth into a living hope.” I really
like the term “living hope.” Hope is something that lives in us and does
stuff. It works. It builds. It makes
other things possible. Hope is more
useful when it is put to use. That
brings me to the next hopeful habit – work.
We talked about prayer and active learning as hope
producing, but hope expands even more as we work. I was sharing with my Dad a while back that
work I did over 30 years ago has come full circle. When I was 15, I got a job mowing church
lawns. It was something my Dad had
helped me do and he did it with me for a while until I was ready to take it
over. Fast forward 30+ years and I was
able to do the same thing with my son Paul a couple of years ago. I couldn’t have known that would happen when
I was 15, but whenever you work at something, it prepares you for something
else in the future - especially if you
try to do it well. Starting my own
business at 15 installed a hope in me that I could do other things as
well. That is hope at work.
The work we do now, especially if we try to do it well, will
prepare us for what’s next. I really do
believe that. I hope you will too.
Prayer: God give us
love and care for the work we have in front of us. May it become a “living
hope” at work in our life. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Ask God to show you what hope-producing work you
could be doing during this season of life.
Song: You Make
Beautiful Things - Gungor
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