New Years Day was definitely different! I woke up and made my coffee as usual and gave myself a few minutes to clear the cobwebs as usual. As I stood in my kitchen waiting for the caffeine to kick in, the thoughts in my head were different from the first day of the year in times past. For the last forty-one New Years’ mornings, I’ve had high hopes that maybe this will be the year when Christ takes His church to be forever with the Lord. I’ve never wanted to lose that sense of watching and waiting. While I still maintain that hope as a child of God, this year I find myself hoping for an added hope. Here it is, brighter days than the last ten months we’ve all experienced. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that 2020 brought with it unexpected and unwelcome hardships that we are all too ready to say good-bye to in 2021. But here we are, and the pandemic is still with us albeit the sunshine is just peeking through the clouds. The road to recovery is slowly making headway. The truth however is that there is still so much that we will have to navigate in the months ahead.
When it comes to hope, I seem to always find my way back to a portion of scripture that realigns my focus just where it needs to be. Let’s listen to what was going on in the lives of Christians a few centuries ago and let’s see how much we have in common with them in our lives today.
This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
May God give you more and more grace and peace.
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 1Peter 1:1-7
The folks who were listening to this letter were suffering. They were undergoing a long campaign of persecution from the Roman world. The possibility of greater and more severe hardships was very real. In our culture of self- focus and surrounding ourselves with only of positive vibes, Peter does something that is incredibly bold and risky. In verse 3 he takes the focus of his readers off of themselves, and what they were going through, and directs their focus on God.
Led by the Spirit of God Peter knew that this is the key that unlocks the floodgates of hope. He doesn’t offer them a fix, a formula, or an escape. He drives their attention to the source of our hope.
Webster defines source as- the point or place from which something arises, comes, or develops, a thing which has its very beginning, origin. What Peter is saying is this, “first of all, dear suffering people, in the midst of your trials let me remind you of our God and Father and what His great mercy has done for us. Remember you have a living hope, a lively hope, a hope that is as solid as the character of God (Deut 32:4).
Ladies, as we enter into this new year let our hope be settled and sustained squarely where it cannot be moved. Let our hope be a living, daily and thriving hope in our eternal realities in Christ (2 Cor 4:17-18).