“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”– I Peter 1:3-7
Beloved, take a moment and re-read this short section of Scripture from I Peter. I will wait! Lol! This is one of my go-to passages for life!
Looking for things to praise God for this morning? How about the fact that He has shown us “great mercy” not just mercy…but “great mercy”. Our sin was so bad… so diabolical…so vile that it took “great mercy” from Him to do what He does next. Great mercy that cost Him dearly that we might receive from Him what He had planned and then promised to all His people.
In His “great mercy”, “…He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”We were so vile…so fallen…that we could not chose the “good things” of God so in His “great mercy”, He caused us to be “born again”…or “born from above” if we want greater clarity on the phrase. Without Him causing this…accomplishing this in the Cross work of Jesus… we would be lost and destitute living eternally in misery. But God, through His “great mercy”, caused us to be “…born again to a living hope”…a real hope… an on-going hope…a hope that never fails …a hope that never fades…an eternal hope that we experience now as His children knowing that this life is fleeting and passing away and eternal life awaits for all who are His. Because of Christ’s resurrection it has been confirmed, affirmed and guaranteed that because He rose we who are His will rise as well from the dead and live eternally with Him.
This “living hope” is further described as “…an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” Inheritances in this life can be squandered away and lost…they most certainly will be taxed. But the inheritance that Peter talks about is kept in a secure place for us in heaven until the Day of Christ Jesus when our salvation will be complete. God keeps this for us so it is guaranteed beyond what we can even imagine or fathom. This inheritance is eternal life…but since this is a living hope we participate in the blessings of it now as well. It is something that is part of the hope for we can look forward to this inheritance where there will be no more tears, sorrow, pain or struggles…no more death…no more disappointments. These things we are certain of NOW!
Soooo… “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Even in this life filled with struggles, trials and griefs, we can rejoice because God uses all of these to mature the faith He has given us (see vss. 3-5). Testing the genuineness of our faith…is not for Him to know whether we are or not of the faith…but He tests our faith so that we will know that we are His and He is working on us making us more and more into the image of His Son as we are prepared to actually receive in total the inheritance He holds in trust for us. This is all His great mercy toward us.
Now if these things listed above aren’t enough to get you praising God then we need to talk. If you are looking for things to praise God about read this whole book of I Peter and you will have enough to keep you busy for days. And then re-read it to find even more that you missed the first time…hence, the beauty of the Word. In praising God, blessing His name we are doing what we were created to do in glorifying Him and enjoying Him …forever.
God Bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
