1 Peter 1: Living hope

Lieutenant Martyn Bellshaw encourages us to make a good connection with God.

Key texts

1 Peter 1:3-12

Straight in. No messing about. I associate these phrases with a no-nonsense approach. There is no hesitation. Of course, there is a time and a place for a thoughtful, measured, slow start to things, but our study passage is straight in at verse 3: ‘Praise be’!

I often find I hesitate when faced with difficulties, not sure what to do, where to go or how to respond. Does that sound familiar? It sometimes feels a little hopeless.

If we look closely, though, there is a direction given in our passage that gives us a different way to do things when faced with difficult options. A no-messing, straight-in option! We need to praise.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Yet it is often last on our list of things to do when we respond to situations where we feel hopeless.

Pause and reflect

What is your natural response to difficult situations?
Do you hesitate or have you managed to achieve the automatic response of turning to praise?

We do need to read on to make sure we get the praise right. Our praise, our worship, our whole lives need to be focused on God. Our hope through praise is only because of ‘his great mercy’ (v3), through all that Jesus has done for us.

In verses 5 to 9, the promises about our inheritance in Christ are just amazing! I read these verses and am filled with a jumping-up-and-down feeling, a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck-standing-up kind of ‘inexpressible and glorious joy’ (v8). Yet it is so much more than this. Its depth is beyond my understanding. The situations I face are still difficult, yet, because of this living hope, I rest in the assurance of who I am and whose I am.

Pause and reflect

Reflect on verses 5 to 9.
Pull out some of the promises that we have through our living hope.

When we live this way, what changes? It’s worth noting that nowhere in this passage does the writer tell us that life is going to be easy when we put our hope in Christ. In fact, verse 6 highlights that people might ‘suffer grief in all kinds of trials’. For some there is no ‘might’ about it!

Yet, in these experiences, the living hope is that our circumstances ‘result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed’ (v7). The last part of that sentence is important: ‘when Jesus Christ is revealed’. Sometimes it is difficult to see Jesus in our everyday, ordinary lives, never mind our suffering. However, in my experience of ministry and life, I have seen time and time again the power of people choosing to find Jesus in those moments.

Choosing – yes, it is a choice. That word is pivotal in how we move from hopelessness to hope. It’s not easy, but Jesus didn’t promise easy. However, he did promise his presence, and that is what allows us to live in the assurance of who we are and whose we are.

Pause and reflect

What do you, or could you, do to help you to choose to see Jesus in the ordinary everyday?

In reading verses 10 to 12 of our study passage, I was at first confused. Initially, I couldn’t work out why the author was worrying about what was prophesied when we already know that it happened. Then, I remembered this letter wasn’t written to me. When those who first heard the letter read in their gatherings, they would have heard these verses and been reminded that all of this wonderful mercy and hope in Christ had been part of the plan all along. What is it the prophets spoke of? Grace (see v10).

When I hear the word ‘grace’, I often associate it with other words: amazing, undeserved, freely given, a gift, and many more. As I journey through my walk with the Lord, the more I learn, the more I realise there’s much I don’t know. One thing I do know is that my dependence on the depth of his grace becomes so much more important.

If we live by grace in our thinking, in our being and in doing, I believe that we will discover what it is to embrace a life that reveals our living hope: Jesus.

When I trained to be a Salvation Army officer, the name of my session was the Messengers of Grace, and we were charged to be just that. In order for each of us to be communicators of God’s grace, we need to know it for ourselves. It needs to be the pattern of our whole lives. If we live by grace in our thinking, in our being and in doing, I believe that we will discover what it is to embrace a life that reveals our living hope: Jesus.

It all sounds so simple, but how do we practically achieve this? An old Sunday school chorus that my granny taught me comes to mind: ‘Read your Bible,/ Pray every day,/ And you’ll grow, grow, grow.

I fear that I often try to complicate this whole thing with trying to keep up with the latest trends or apps – some of which can be useful – and fail to remember that it is all about connecting with God. The best ways to do that are to study the living word of God and intentionally spend time in prayer. It is then, and only then, that we will fully experience the living hope that is ours through his mercy and grace.