A Series of Fortunate Events
/1 Peter 1:13 - 25
A favorite hymn of mine recites, “How sweet to hold a newborn baby…” It’s a phenomenon that many of us were fortunate to experience with our church this past Sunday morning. I thank God that we get to celebrate precious moments in life like this together. We continue to celebrate birthdays each year as a sign of our fortune in sharing time with the one that is growing and maturing through life.
The youngest of my children is reaching a milestone age next week and I’m grateful for the man God has shaped him to be and feel so fortunate for the gospel community he’s experienced in his 21 years. Fortunately for him, ever since he was a newborn, he has been consistently rubbing shoulders with God’s people through the church family placed around him in various seasons along his faith journey. Fortunately, these moments have been deeply impacting and foundational to who he is today and where his hope will come from. Those that know my son would also describe him as very active. Life requires us to be active, some of us more than others. Newborns must grow and become more active in their responsibilities to care for themselves and others. Likewise, those of us who are fortunate to have been ransomed with the precious blood of Christ have an active part to play in God’s mission for His church to prepare for sober-minded actions that glorify God and love others through uncertain times.
In our text this week, Peter is writing to Christians using action statements for how we should now live in light of all that we have heard and know personally about Jesus as the Christ – things into which angels long to look, things that draw us closer to God’s heart, things that lead us to love one another in ways that please God. You and I have an active part to play. Peter says, “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” There is much here that Peter directs us to act on and sets our hearts apart from futile perspectives in order that we are transformed by the fortune we have in Christ.
Let us dwell deeply on our fortune in Christ so that we will be compelled to live in such a way that the power of the Gospel is on display for the watching world around us in how we live now. The faith journey continues for you, me, and my son with each new day and the choices we make on what we will set our hope on going forward. May our hope be set fully on that fortunate word of the Lord we heard preached to us when we were born again. Jesus said that even the angels threw a party over it – how fortunate are those who are in Christ Jesus!
Grateful & Hopeful in Christ,
Jon