What do you hope for in life?

We use the word hope for things we’re not sure will happen.

• “I hope it doesn’t rain.”
• “I hope I get the job.”
• “I hope everything works out.”

Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. In everyday conversation, hope often means little more than wishing for a particular outcome.

That isn’t what Peter means when he speaks of Christian hope.

Peter was writing to Christians who knew what it meant for life to be uncertain. He addresses them as “exiles,” people whose faith in Christ increasingly made them strangers in the world around them. Some were literally exiled from their homes as well. Throughout the letter, Peter speaks openly about suffering and the possibility that following Jesus will make life harder rather than easier.

Yet he begins his letter with praise.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”

Why?

Because God…

“has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Notice again who acts first. God caused us to be born again. Just as none of us contributed to our physical birth, our new birth as Christians is God’s work. The Holy Spirit brings spiritually dead sinners to life through the Gospel and joins us to the risen Christ.

And because Jesus lives, our hope lives.

Christian hope is not optimism that everything in this life will eventually work out the way we want. Peter offers something much stronger than that. Jobs can disappear. Health can fail. Relationships can break. Christians can suffer precisely because they belong to Christ.

Our hope survives all of those things because its foundation is not our circumstances.

Its foundation is Jesus Himself.

Jesus is God. Jesus has already passed through death and come out the other side. His resurrection is God’s declaration that sin has been atoned for and death has been defeated. Because you belong to Christ, His resurrection is also the guarantee of your resurrection.

Peter says there is an inheritance waiting for you that is

“imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.”

Almost everything we inherit in this world eventually disappears. Money gets spent. Possessions wear out. Property deteriorates. Even the most carefully preserved family treasures cannot last forever.

What God has prepared for you cannot perish.

And Peter adds another promise. Not only is your inheritance being kept for you, but God is guarding you through faith for that salvation.

Sometimes, we can get the image in our minds that God is sitting up in heaven just waiting for us to mess up so He can punish us or give us the boot. Or, perhaps, we don’t imagine Him waiting for us to mess up, but rather He’s indifferent about it. If we make it heaven, great for us. If we are condemned to hell, too bad for us.

Neither image is what we see here. God isn’t waiting for you to mess up, nor is He indifferent. God is actively working to preserve His people in faith until the salvation Christ has won is finally revealed in all its fullness.

He’s fighting for you!

So Christian hope can exist alongside grief.

• You can mourn and still have hope.
• You can be frightened and still have hope.
• You can face a future you never wanted and still have hope.

Because hope isn’t pretending that everything is fine. Nor is our hope something that’s unsure.

We know that Jesus is alive and trust in His death and resurrection for our salvation. And because He lives, your future with Him is secure.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for causing me to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When the things of this world feel uncertain, keep me from placing my hope in circumstances that can change.

Fix my eyes on the risen Christ. Guard me through faith, especially in times of suffering and uncertainty, and remind me that You have prepared an inheritance for me that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

Keep me in this living hope until the day when faith becomes sight and I share fully in the resurrection life of Your Son.

Through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.