I have been asking God to show me just how do I bring into today and put to use in today the reality that God speaks of in 1 Peter about HOPE.
The hope that is being spoken of is tied to several things, first it is a Living Hope (1 Peter 1:3), it is provides an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled (1 Peter 1:4), it provides an inheritance that does not fade away and is reserved for me in heaven (1 Peter 1:4), it's a hope that is protected by the power of God thru faith (1Peter 1:5), it's a hope that provides a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time (1Peter1:5), it's a hope that gives me reason to rejoice greatly even while suffering for a little while by necessity (1 Peter 1:6), this hope is tied to my faith and this faith is more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7), this hope is tied to my faith that is tested by fire and will result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7), it is a hope tied to my faith that will obtain as the outcome the salvation of my soul (1 Peter 1:9), and this Hope tied to my Faith are in God who also happened to raise Jesus from the dead and gave Jesus glory (1 Peter 1:21).
Again, how do I gain something for today knowing that this Hope and Faith that I have will not actually be gained until Christ comes again (or I go to Him). Being the very practical and pragmatic person that I am, I just could not get my mind around this. It was to far away for me to gain any tangible benefit from. Yes, yes, yes, I know in my head all that Truth but how does that help me today. So I have prayed for understanding and wisdom.
Yesterday our Sr. Pastor was away at convention so our Pastor of our seniors preached. He has lived a long and full life serving the Lord and was honored to be in the pulpit. He said that it is just so refreshing to be in the book of 1 Peter again. yep, 1 Peter. He shared about the first 10 verses or so. I will not go into the whole thing but just the part that God used to answer my prayer. Pastor Harry made reference to the word used in verse 4 regarding our inheritance being reserved for us in heaven. He commented about loving to have a reservation for dinner, or a hotel, or even a car rental reservation. We just show up, tell them our name, and whatever it was that was reserved for us is now ours.
Well that got me to thinking. How do I feel when I have a trip coming up where all the reservations are already made. The trip is planned, paid for, committed to, all I have to do is wait for that day to come to drive to the airport and I begin to receive all that has been reserved for me. Well, after I had made the decision to go to the Exodus Conference and had made all the reservations I began to get excited every day about the day when I would leave and begin to experience all that the reservations had in store for me. So, while I was still engaged in my life, washing laundry, cleaning, ministering, going to church, spending time with my family, etc I had this excitement building in the back ground of my mind, knowing that the day to leave was getting every closer. This was continually there, not distracting me from my priorities but still there, reminding me of good things to come.
This is just what I needed to learn how to bring that reality of what is being talked about in 1 Peter into today. The reality is I'm not going to experience it today but I can get excited about the truth that the day to leave is getting ever nearer. Now to be honest, I do not believe that Christ is coming in the next week or two, or that my life will be ending either. This does create a bit of a delema because it is still a bit far off. So I'm going to ask Jesus to give me that excitement because it is beyond my human ability to appropriate by myself. I will let you know how Jesus answers this new prayer.
Perhaps you can join me in this and you too will be blessed.
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