Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:28-31 NAS

As we read in the Old Testament, God’s promise to his people, the promise of entering into the promised land and being a blessed nation, was contingent on them being faithful to God and worshiping none other than their own God. If God allowed such calamities to happen to his own people in those days because of their disobedience, how much more so will calamity befall those who completely fall out of God’s grace or deny him altogether. As this verse, Revelation and other parts of the Bible remind us, a chilling fate awaits those who refuse to acknowledge and surrender to God.

But Christ is the answer and is more than enough to quench our thirst for happiness, joy, love, and peace. And it’s In the gospels that he makes his case.

Attempting to grasp what Christ meant when he said one must be born again, Nicodemus in the Gospel of John asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Christ then went on to say that one must believe in him to enter the kingdom of heaven. Here, we don’t take the word “believe” to be synonymous with believing that the sun is real or that the world is round. The Greek word for “believe” has two primary meanings: “1. to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in” and “2. to entrust a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity.” Our belief in Christ carries with it both meanings. We are both persuaded that Christ is who he says he is, and, to take it a step further, we are persuaded enough to entrust Christ with our lives.

Even so, some in the world live their entire lives in a decrepit spiritual condition: some spiritually asleep; others spiritual but not Christ-like; still others religion but hearers, not doers of the word. Some spend 30, 40, or 50 years running a race that has no end, for one can amass the wealth of Bill Gates and still, and assuredly will, feel empty inside. These types of people likely worship many things, including cars, careers, love, wealth, and prosperity. Ultimately, their lives and their futures are based on untruths, for one doesn’t have to worship Baal or Buddha to be an idol worshipper.

Ask yourself on what you are basing your future? The unending, unbending, eternal truths and promises of God or the faltering, finite, and fading trappings of this world.

application

Read through Psalm 31 and highlight or take note of the attributes of God given by the psalmist which validate our claim that God is truly worthy of our devotion, our praise, and our very futures.

The Bible, a story of creation, a descent into sin, eventual punishment, then reward, prophecy, then the coming of a savior, is our story. And it’s not just a story. It’s the thread by which we knit our lives. In this, we can have confidence to live out our lives in the truth and knowledge that God is the center and the source of our eternal hope.

This story starts and ends with promises, to Adam and Eve, then to Abraham, then to us. God’s initial promise to Adam was that he should “be fruitful and multiply” and God would make him ruler of the earth, holding precedence over all the other living things in creation. But as we know, man slipped out of favor with God by disobedience. Then, to Abraham, God’s promise was that his progeny would expand across the earth, making Abraham’s descendants great among the nations. Much of the rest of the Old Testament tells of the ebb-and-flow relationship between God and his people, as they were sometimes faithful and at other times, unfaithful to their end of the bargain: that they would abide by the law and not worship any other idols.

Some critics have attempted to point out that, though Israel did not always keep her promise to God, neither did God, who allowed his nation to fall into slavery and be conquered by foreign nations time and again. But this is not where our confidence should waver, for God’s promise was contingent on the people being faithful, and if they weren’t faithful, he said strife would follow. That was also a promise.

But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings … For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. (v 32-35)

Just as Sarah laughed at God when he told her she would conceive of a child in old age and just as Gideon’s men surely were astounded when God told Gideon to send away all but 300 men — the very ones who were afraid — and defeat the thousands of troops in the camp with only trumpets, pitchers, and torches, we too sometimes become disillusioned, fearful or doubtful about the future and what God has planned. While God may be audibly silent, his word to us is not. These verses remind us to remember all God has done for us, and this should be our response in good times and bad, for God’s promises are tried and tested, enduring, and irrevocable. But remembering instances in the past where God has come through for us is only the beginning, and faith is the end.

While there will surely be bright days in our lives, there will also be dark days, and our memory will only carry us so far. Our faith, which the Bible calls the “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” will take us the rest of the way and help us to finish the race, having lived a life wholly, not partly, but wholly devoted to God and his precepts.

application

Read through carefully through Hebrews 11:3-12 again, taking note of the many examples the Bible provides of people having faith in God and God coming through for them, showing up at critical times to fulfill what he said he would do for them. In the end, God always shows up. The question he asks: Will you?

Eli’s introduction in the Bible is brief and abrupt, but, as we see in numerous cases throughout the Bible, some men, Jabez, for instance, can be used by God in momentous ways, even though the space devoted to them in the text may be cursory. And those men can hold personal implications for us as we think about what it means to be men of God, as outlined in Ephesians 5:21-23.

Although Eli, as was written in 1 Samuel 1-5, was a judge for Israel across a time span of four decades, we really only have five chapters by which to learn about him. Despite this, his impact was far-reaching, and we can credit him with training and being a mentor to Samuel, one of the great Old Testament leaders.

At the beginning of 1 Samuel, we find Hannah weeping because she is barren. Eli, sitting on a chair at the Lord’s temple, noticed her crying and thought she was drunk. Upon talking with her, however, he learned of her sorrow and granted his blessing to her that she would conceive of a son. That son was Samuel and he was conceived, we can infer from the text, on the next day. Hannah promised to God that if she could have a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord. She did, and largely left Samuel’s care and instruction with Eli, who brought him up in the ways of God. Since Hannah had given her only son into God’s service, Eli later prayed with her and Elkanah again that they would have more children. This became a reality as well.

Samuel, who the Bible says, “ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest,” went on to be a leader for the Israel nation, helping appoint Saul, and later, David, as kings of the nation.

Eli, however, was not without flaws. His two sons, whom the Bible describes as “wicked” did not follow the ways of God and even were charged with “treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.” The Lord then charged Eli with failing to rebuke his sons because of their actions. What followed was Israel’s defeat by Palestine, first on the battlefield, and then an even more fatal defeat in Israel’s own camp, which resulted in the loss of the ark of the covenant. It was later returned by the Palestinians after many in the Palestinian camp were stricken with tumors because they possessed Israel’s ark.

The lesson of Eli, then, is that first, human parents are flawed. Though we as Christians seek to lead godly lives and rear our children in that direction, our very nature will cause us to fail at times, as Eli did. But alternately, we are to be mentors and godly examples for our children. In this  passage, we learn that Eli acted as a father figure for Samuel, teaching him and ministering to him as Samuel matures in God. So too, as witnessed by our actions, being committed to praying  daily for and with our children, reading the Bible daily and loving our wives as Christ loved the church, we can show our children that we are examples in Christ by which to follow. And the Bible says that if we teach them in the way they should go, they will never stray from it.

To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him. Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

Deuteronomy 4:35-39

From the beginning of the book of Genesis, through the flood, through Israel’s escape from Egypt to the parting of the Red Sea and subsequent conquests of nations, the Bible, in its march toward the coming of Jesus, leaves no question in the reader’s mind who is ultimately in control of man’s failures and successes, physical lives and eternal souls. As Moses reminds the Israelites — and us — in these verses in Deuteronomy, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has no peers.

In the last week, I have been looking at this book, which is essentially a collection of three speeches given by Moses recounting much of what has already happened in the previous four books. Two words are poignant in knowing what the book is about. The first is the Hebrew word “devarim,” which comes from the opening words of the book, “Eleh ha-devarim,” meaning “These are the words.” The other is the Greek word, “Deuteronomion,” where we get the English title for the book, meaning “second law.” So, “these are the words” of Moses, recounting the laws God previously gave.

I found this book particularly interesting and significant for the Christian because after a series on lengthy narratives, genealogies and law-giving, the reader is given a clear, personal directive from a venerated man of God that the One they have attempted to follow — though sometimes faltering and complaining of their plight — is truly worthy of our worship. One writer summed it up well: “Obviously, a great deal of dialogue has been heard in the first four books of the Bible, some of it vivid and impassioned. And in the Book of Leviticus, as noted, the Lord recites a detailed code of law. Before Deuteronomy, however, no one has spoken to the Israelites at anything like this length in anything like so personal and rhetorical a style about themselves, their God, and their destiny.”

The key word there, I think, is “personal.” Moses isn’t just retelling all the Lord had done for them through bringing them out of Egypt and continuing to meet their needs, based on their obedience, he seems to be telling them on an intimate level why God is worthy of their devotion, just as the Lord has been devoted to them.

As we see through the Pentateuch, numerous individuals, including the Israelites at various times, fell into Baal worship. Perhaps they saw some similarities between God the Father and the Canaanite god of Baal. Baal, who was commonly associated with thunder and lightning, smoke, volcanic activity and fire, and also of fertility, had those commonalities with God the Father. As we see in Exodus 19, God comes down to on Mount Sinai in fire, and “as Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.” Also, of fertility, God the Father, by telling Noah and Abram that he will make them great nations and commanding Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply,” He sets himself up as the the very source and cause of their ability to give birth and build their nation. But there are distinct and eternally significant differences between the God of all heaven and earth and other gods, whether they are from antiquity or from the present: God is the source of the law and the lawgiver. God is the point at which human existence begins and when it will end. He is the source of salvation. And the most impressive of all: he is the only god, ever, in human thought or mythology to offer himself as the sacrificial gift by which we may be saved.

While all the other gods require of us some effort, that something to make us worthy enough to enter into their holy places, God the Father assumes at the start that we aren’t worthy enough and never will be. Thus, he sent his son as a perfect sacrifice, as a replacement, to retell the disastrous fate that would have awaited us. But in the Gospel of John, we find Christ taking that awful burden on his own shoulders, not in some obligatory way, but freely, for our sake, all so that He may one day hear from us, “There is no other” god but God the Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

application

Read through Deuteronomy 4 and take note or write down all of the reasons Moses gives for the Israelites to know, without a doubt, that God the Father alone is worthy of their worship.

Unless we go camping or hiking frequently, we today tend to think less about lamp oil, the sort referred to nearly 200 times in the Bible, and more about petroleum, which is obviously used to power our hustle-bustle lifestyle. But before electricity, oil lamps were crucial for educating children, working and traveling. In fact, just as people in the old days would not be able to function without oil for lamps, we would be in dire straits economically and socially without petroleum.

In this passage, Christ uses a parable about virgins wandering out to meet the bridegroom, which here represents Jesus, to make a point about the foolish versus the wise. Five virgins prepare before hand to meet the bridegroom by bringing, not only lamps to see through the night, but oil for the lamps. Bringing oil to power the lamps may seem like an obvious necessity to us, but regardless, the other five virgins chose to only bring the lamps with no oil. When the time came to meet the bridegroom, predictably, the five prudent ones were ready at midnight and the foolish ones had to go into the city and purchase oil.

There’s a lot of ground to cover here, but first, the Bible has much to say about followers who prudently navigate a world of widespread darkness, without the light of Christ in many, many people’s lives. In this passage, oil is used to represent our salvation and the wisdom we possess and should seek after because of a relationship with Him. One online commentary here notes that those who possess prudence in God: understand the ways of God, are crowned with knowledge, can identify evil and false teaching, have the ability to control anger and other destructive feelings, and many other attributes. Thus, without oil in our symbolic lamps, that is, without seeking teaching and wisdom from the word of God daily, we are left susceptible to the dangers of the dark, to the dangers of falsehood and evil and to all things void of Christ. So, it is critically important as Christians that we seek to more fully know God and his wisdom and understanding as we go about our lives. Or else, we leave ourselves open to snares. In this parable, the foolish virgins ultimately did not gain entry into the bridegroom’s house because they had not prepared and filled up their lamps. They did not wisely use the resources God had provided.

Second, and perhaps the most exciting aspect of this parable, those who are diligent, who do prepare, and who do desire God’s truth, they will be rewarded with a feast. For us, this doesn’t mean a literal feast, but an eternity with Christ, a feast of everlasting love, joy and peace in a place called heaven. It’s place with no more longing, no more suffering, thirst, hunger or pain. It’s a destiny that we can look forward to, knowing that we have lived lives fully devoted to Christ and his teaching. But, and it’s a big but, as seen in this parable, those who do not rightly prepare, that is surrendering their lives to Christ, will be turned away as were these five foolish virgins, who seemingly thought they could “borrow” someone else’s provisions to get into the bridegroom’s house. Salvation, however, is a personal decision made one soul at the time. No one else can lend you part of their salvation. Salvation comes when Christ calls a person to their knees, and it truly is an individual, personal, relationship with the most high.

This parable teaches, then, briefly gives us the spiritual decisions that we all have to make and their consequences: salvation, rejection of Christ, eternal life, and separation from Christ.

application

Read through a few or all of these verses and answer for yourself what God is teaching about wisdom and prudence in your life: Proverbs 8:12, Proverbs 12:23, Proverbs: 2:11, Proverbs 13:16, Hosea 14:9, Proverbs 14:8, Proverbs 16:21, Psalms 112:5, Ephesians 5:15, Colossians 4:5, Matthew 10:16, Ephesians 1:8.

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, `From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John 7:37-39

In these tough economic times, coupled with everyday stresses we sometimes face at work and school, we as Christians can lay claim to an endless source of encouragement exclusive to us. It should not only help us more easily deal with problems difficult times, but it will help us be encouragers to those around us.

Since we live on the other side of the cross, we have the assurance that Christ, indeed, sacrificed himself for us, rose from the dead, and conquered sin and death. We can now know what it is like to have the Holy Spirit living inside us.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

John 14:16-17

As the time drew near to Jesus’ eventual trial and execution on the cross, one can imagine that the disciples and those close to Jesus were fearful of Christ leaving them because of the possible persecution they may face. But Christ said to them, as he says to us: he will not leave us as “orphans,” but will come and abide in us, helping us daily to understand and know Him more through his Spirit.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

John 14:27-28

Thus, we should be encouraged in knowing that, as Christians, we are recipients God’s eternal peace. But not only does the Holy Spirit serve as our helper and comforter, he is what the Bible calls our “seal” or “pledge.” The Spirit is like a badge of honor, our spiritual litmus test, our proof positive that we truly belong to the Father. He is also our guarantee of not only future blessings in this life — because Christ abides in us and seeks us to live fruitful lives for him — but an assurance of our eternal security locked away and secure in him. Some of the blessings bestowed upon us through the Holy Spirit are found in these passages.

application

Read through these passages: Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 3:16, and Romans 15:13.

Today, as you continue your work week or school week, take a minute and be reminded that within you abides the very helper Christ spoke about in the Gospels. Within you resides a Spirit able and willing to fill you up with abundantly flowing joy and peace in the midst of the troubled world around you. Thank Him for what he has already done in your life and what he will do in the future as you continue your walk, trusting in Him daily for your sustenance and for your life.

]]> http://devotionals.themountchurch.com/2008/10/01/the-spirit-a-willing-and-able-helper/feed/ 0 http://devotionals.themountchurch.com/2008/09/24/lines-of-division-erased/ http://devotionals.themountchurch.com/2008/09/24/lines-of-division-erased/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:00:03 +0000 Jeremy http://devotionals.themountchurch.com/?p=127 Read through Ephesians 2:11-22

During the One Prayer series this summer, we at The Mount learned about what it might look like if, not only individual churches were unified to the singular purpose of reaching the world for Christ, but if the Church as a whole were unified for that purpose.

In this passage, we read from Paul that, indeed, Christ has already broken down the dividing line that separates people. Here, Paul is literally referring to the traditional division in biblical times between Gentiles and Jews. But in verse 21, Paul envisions the kind of church oneness referred to in the summer series.

If we allow him, Satan will put in front of us numerous points of possible contention, which may serve only to divide and drum up hostility. Some of them include: race, political affilation and differences in biblical doctrine.

But a church body fully devoted to emulating Christ, both personally and corporately, won’t fall prey to such designs, for our designer has set in motion a bright, multi-faceted world of people enveloped under his governance so that, regardless of international conflict, disease or personal strife, we have the assurance in knowing he is, not just the bringer of peace, but peace itself.

For he himself is our peace who has made the two (Jews and Gentiles) one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.

Ephesians 2:14-15

Thus, in the midst of personal trials or difficulties in relationships, we should pray, not that Christ would give us strength and peace, but that he would BE our strength and peace.

One of the most stark images of peace and tranquility in the midst of trials is found in Psalm 42, where David writes:

As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, O God.

Psalm 42:1

And in verse 5, we read:

Why are you so downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God

for I will yet praise him, my Savior, my God.

Throughout history, we find the God of the universe winnowing the good wheat from the bad, plucking out that which divides and raising up those who serve to unify his church. And when he returns, the entire world will know that the winnowing fork is, and always has been, in his hands. Ultimately, we will some day be fully one church, unified with him in Glory.

For now, take heart in knowing that, if you feel fractured inside, if your relationships are a mess or if you feel incomplete, Jesus seeks to make you whole. He can truly be your strength and your peace if you will let him work in you.

application

Read through the rest of Psalm 42 and praise him for the work he is about to do in your life.

Resting place, four-square city

Resting place, heavenly shore

Resting place, land of beauty

Where we’ll rest forever more.

When she was alive, my grandmother loved to hear my dad sing this Southern gospel song called, “Resting Place.” She always said it was her favorite. So, when my grandmother died a few months ago, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s and other ailments, he sang the song at her funeral because he knew that’s what she would have wanted.

While the song is about our eternal resting place in heaven, did you know we have a resting place here on earth?

This powerful passage in Colossians speaks of just that sort of peace we find in Christ. As verse 1 says:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (NIV).

Knowing that our lives are “hidden with Christ” is a fascinating picture of our eternal security. We no longer have to worry about either our eternal destiny or our fate while in this life. We are hidden with Christ so that Satan can’t get to us. This should give us comfort. Because we belong to God, evil no longer has sway over our lives. The keys of sin and death are now firmly in our savior’s hands. Thus, evil has been stripped of its power over us. As poet John Milton portrays him in “Paradise Lost,” Satan is a defeated foe. He is hobbled and impotent, shining no longer as he once did.

With that knowledge, we also are to strip off our earthly passions and desires, replacing them with that which is godly, detailed in verse 12-14 of this passage.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.

As children of God, we are not only called to display the characteristics of God, but to conduct our lives in an attitude of peace toward those with whom we come in contact. As Christ supplies us with an eternal peace, secure both now and forever in him, so should we exude this sense of unfathomable security that has been extended to us with the rest of the world.

application

Read over Psalm 29 and thank God, both for his mighty power over this earth, and for the calming peace he brings to his people’s hearts and lives.

We did not follow cleverly invent stories where we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my won, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came down from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

2 Peter 16-18 (NIV)

Much has been said and spoken about the literally thousands of references in the Old Testament to the coming of Jesus. Those Old Testament prophets had a word from God about what was to come, and their accuracy in prophetically portraying the events of the Gospels is both remarkable and awe-inspiring. So much so that their inspiration could have only come from God himself.

Thus, as Simon Peter writes here in 2 Peter, false teachers and prophets were attempting to infiltrate the church. Throughout this short book, Peter is encouraging us to remain strong in our faith and knowledge of Jesus as the risen Lord.

In the Gospels, we find exactly the omniscient knowledge through Jesus as was given to the Old Testament prophets, further testifying to the fact that Christ is, indeed, God in the flesh. Most notably, we find Christ in the book of John accurately and without hesitation, pointing out that, not only would Judas betray him, but Peter, who would go on to author the God-inspired account later in the New Testament.

Jesus was not just a prophet of short-term events. As revealed in John 14:6, Jesus is the gatekeeper of truth itself, and in him, there is life. Again in Revelation, as Jesus reveals himself to John the Revelator, Jesus is the embodiment of everything that was, is, and is to come.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God. “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 1:8 (NIV)

Through John, we find a savior who is the source of the Old Testament prophecies, the source of life, the conqueror of sin and death, the source of the New Earth to come, and truth itself. Like the root system of a 200-year-old oak tree, he is the origination of all things, and through him, our lives and eternally are secure.

application

Be encouraged today as you start the week, that even before the long and often-sundry events of the Bible began to unfold, you were on his mind. Be encouraged and know that his truth is everlasting and without blemish or flaw. Be still right where you are and know that you are secure in him.

But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.

Psalm 103:17-18 (NAS)

Did you know that as a child of God, your inheritance in His kingdom is secure? As this verse says, “the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.”

For those who have entrusted their lives with Jesus and sharpened their focus on living for Him, questions of eternity have already been answered. While the world flounders in spiritual uncertainty, the Bible says you no longer have to. Living for Jesus means one no longer has to wonder, “Am I going to heaven,” or “Will I ever attain peace, hope, and love?” Right now, wherever you are, at work, at home or at school,  those elements, through the Holy Spirit living through you, are at your grasp. In fact, the entire gamut of Christ-centered traits found in Galatians 5:22 are freely available and should be displayed through you as you walk with Christ.

As Galatians 5:24 says:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (NIV)

Thus, not only is your eternal destiny secure, but as a believer, you have been infused with a set of Christ-like qualities that provide a benchmark to knowing that you truly belong. For, not only does the fruit of the Spirit displayed in you show the world that you are a child of God, but those nine traits provide more fulfillment and happiness than anything the world claims will bring peace and contentment.

We know, however, that despite the presence of the qualities, this life is far from being a cakewalk. Trials, temptations, sickness and heartache are natural parts of our human existence. For non-believers, that’s where it stops. But for Christians, the hope we find in Christ transcends our own carnality.

Early Christians, as well as anyone, understood this truth and gave us remarkable examples of how to steadfastly keep our eyes on Jesus in the midst of, and in spite of, persecution, trials, and personal tragedy. Peter, speaking on this kind of hope in Christ, tells us this in 1 Peter 1:3-5.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:3-5 (NAS)

“In the Bible, hope is not wishful thinking,” according to a scriptural note in the NIV Study Bible, “but a firm conviction, much like faith, that is directed toward the future.”

application

Whereever you are today, there are your office desk or reading at home, take a minute of silence with God and be encouraged that your eternal security is firmly in his hands. Thank Him today for his gift of grace and salvation and for the hope in Christ to endure in the face of trials, throwing off our earthly passions and desires, deeply fixated on his peace, hope, and love.