Before I go back to my own personal journey with my Bible, we are now in the season of Advent as we look forward to the coming of Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem. It’s a season of hope and expectation. We are living through difficult and challenging times as the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps around the world.
An announcement has just been made that a vaccine has been developed and is going to be available. This has raised people’s expectations and, maybe, their hopes. However we don’t know how effective this vaccine is going to be so the hope we have is not as certain as we might like it to be.
However, there is a hope that is steadfast and certain and it is linked to Jesus.
Good old Peter, again! He has written a letter to Christians in five different countries – most of which are in what we know today as Turkey.
Read 1 Peter 1:3-9
This is what we are looking for – something real, something lasting – something guaranteed. And it has come from God, the Creator of the universe, who has never stopped loving people, even though they turned their backs on Him.
Spend some time in these verses and be excited by what God has done, is doing and will yet do. The underlying reason for this is His ‘great mercy’. Arising from this we have been given a new birth into a ‘living hope’. This is not based on some fanciful theory but it is rooted in the ‘resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’.
And it gets better – much better. We now have an inheritance.
This inheritance …
cannot perish
cannot spoil
cannot fade
cannot be touched
This inheritance is being kept safe in heaven. Jesus is the provider of our inheritance and He is the guardian of our inheritance.
We may joke with our children that they have already used up their inheritance but God, our Heavenly Father, is enabling us today to begin enjoying our inheritance as we live out our faith and trust in Him.
That’s why Peter, later in these verses, tells us that ‘though we have not seen Him … we love Him … we believe in Him and we are filled with joy.’
Maybe this Advent and Christmas season, we will remember Him who has done everything for us to bring us to God and look forward to the time when we will see Him and spend eternity with Him.
Have you booked your place yet?
The Bible and Me 