Upper Loft Meditation- 1 Peter 1

“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…” - 1 Peter 1:3

Through the resurrection of Jesus, God has given to those who believe in His son, a living hope.

It is very important to understand that this is a hope, not as the world defines hope, but as it is defined in the Bible. Hope is defined by the world as wishful thinking. It is what you want to have happen.

The Bible defines hope as something in the future you are certain will come to pass. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1

You can see the huge difference between the two different view points.

C.S. Lewis writes that hope is not “a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Salve Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.”

Hope is not to be set on a shelf with all your other reference books. It is to be set ever before you like a fresh bouquet of flowers.