Thursday 28 Jun 2018

June 28: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Key Verse: 1 Peter 1:6
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

Devotion:
How many times have you read a letter and kind of skipped past the first few sentences to try and find the ‘good stuff’? Have you then gone back over the letter and found just how much is usually in those first few sentences? In this epistle we find so much to think about in our first few sentences that it definitely has to be read over again more carefully. The theme has got to be our faith, our living hope, our eternal gift. It should not be read as something we might have if we hope hard enough, but something which we have because we have believed in the beginning!

Because Christ went to that cross, we have hope. That hope is not just for anyone who is a Christian, but for everybody! It does not mean we all get a free ticket to heaven, but it does mean we all have access to that free ticket if we are willing to just pick it up! Can you imagine being told you had a free ticket to fly anywhere in the world for free (and being assured that it was not a gimmick)? Would you think twice about going to pick up that sort of gift? Our hope has not died with Jesus on the cross, but lives forever because Christ rose from the grave. Our hope continues to live until He returns without any strings attached.

It does not mean we will have a group of body guards who will protect us from everything thereafter for we still live in a corrupt world where we are tempted and where we go astray. But it does mean we no longer have to fear ever not getting our prize because it does not depend on us having to maintain or do anything after we have been saved. Nobody can take that gift away from us, no matter what trial they may push in our way, we no longer have to fear ever losing that gift. God may well allow some of those trials to get through to us to reinforce our faith when it begins to dwindle, or even to reinforce someone else’s faith when theirs begins to dwindle. Every trial will be for a purpose, but none can ever separate us from our God!

Points to Ponder:
How many times do you read letters just to make sure you don’t miss things?

How much do you read God’s Word so that you don’t miss things?