Living Hope

This morning I was reading in 1 Peter 1 and ran across a verse that really stuck with me. In fact, I kept reading but my mind was stuck on this one verse and I ended up going back to it and really contemplating what it had to say. So, here's where I found myself camped out:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." - 1 Peter 1:3-5

I put the whole section in here but really the thing that captured my attention is where it talks about God giving us new birth into a living hope through Christ. It made me think that when we have a relationship with Christ we don't just have a new expectation to live differently or a new set of rules to follow - we have a new hope. This new hope is alive and it translates into affecting everything that we experience here on earth. This hope promises a future so bright that we can't even begin to imagine it but we can live with the hope of it right now. Before we know Christ our hope tends to be so temporary and transient - we struggle through our days hoping that we won't get caught in traffic or hoping that we might meet the right person or hoping that we'll get a promotion we want. However, knowing Christ brings a new and living hope into our lives. We don't have to place our hope in the temporary things of this world longing for them to bring us peace and joy. Instead, our hope is different - it's set upon the Lord and His promises and while we may face disappointment and struggles, we now have a hope that doesn't get caught up in the circumstances we find ourselves.

We tend to toss around the word hope and it is appropriate for so many areas of our lives but let's not forget that in Christ we can have a new hope, a hope that supersedes the temporary and walks above the worldly, and carries us along with it towards the glory that God has for us.