A Living Hope

"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

Peter knows what he is talking about. Not only because he is being led of the Holy Spirit as he writes his epistle, but because from personal experience he knows what it is like to feel "dead", to feel "done", to feel "hopeless". As I read Peter's general epistle to us all I have to remind myself that this is also the man that was overly exuberant, zealous to a fault and at the other end of the spectrum denied Christ, ran away, quit and practically could not go on.

I have felt some of these feelings in my life and they are debilitating to say the least. I have felt like I was dying more than once and I am still here. I have claimed that I was finished and God is not finished with me yet. I have felt trapped and cornered, beset and beleaguered only to rally once again to vitality and new life. I have run away (not very far) and have quit and thought I could not continue, not only in my ministry, but in my family and in my friendships and in my mind.

But, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given me new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When we allow ourselves to be honest and real with our issues great and small, we open up a whole new chapter of our lives. One that we didn't even know could be written. So today I encourage you that as long as you have breath, you are not done. As long as you are moving you have somewhere to go. As long as you can think there is a new way to look at things. Peter is such a great example to us of God's great mercy. He knows what he is talking about and so do I. So, don't give up. God has a plan. Consider it each morning before you think of anything else.

In Him,
Pastor Fred

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