Daily Devotion – April 24, 2020 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
1 Peter 1:3-9
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1:4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
1:5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1:6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,
1:7 so that the genuineness of your faith–being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1:8 Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
1:9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Just look for a moment at Verse 3 at the beginning of this passage.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Now think about that wondrous thing! By God’s great mercy and Jesus’ resurrection, we are reborn into a living hope. A living hope. Not something dead and dusty. Not something vague and maybe once alive but now a shadow of what it once was, like some pressed flower in a book.
A living hope.
This hope, not some vague pie in the sky, but this hope is alive! That means it breathes, it runs and jumps, it has its own energy source. And it is based on and rooted in God the Creator’s/Father’s mercy and Jesus’ rising from the dead.
Do we ever live as if this were the truth? I don’t know about you, but I forget about it sometimes. I think I have to dig up my own home-growth hope based on my intellect or on things I’ve acquired or even on my friends whom I depend upon to cheer me up sometimes.
But the amazing thing is we don’t have to do that. We have been given from God this living hope that nothing can kill. We have it. We always have it.
Let’s use it!
What can we do with this gift that we have received from the loving God who made us? We can keep ourselves from cycles and cycles of worry during the coronavirus pandemic, that’s sure. But we could share it with others, too, couldn’t we? Why not? Let’s live as though we actually are paying attention to having the gift of living hope. And let’s share it with others who definitely need it right now.
Dear Lord, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us living hope. Help us to pay attention to it, use it, and share it with others. Amen.
