Hope focused

"Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter

Hope is a wonderful thing.  

It gives promise for tomorrow and the ability to endure today.  
Hope is vital for life.  When we give up hope we die!  

Often, in war time, stories are told of prisoners who have given up hope.  They turn their faces toward the wall and within days simply fade away and die.

We cannot survive without hope.  

But hope placed in the wrong things causes... 

despair, 

fear 

and anxiety.  

When what we hope for is not able to bear our dreams and fears that hope only makes today worse.

When our hope is in man despair always comes because man will always let us down and disappoint.  We were never meant to be the hope of another.  That place is reserved for God alone.

This morning I am dwelling on Peter's words, 

"fix your hope completely..."  

It's a hope built on faith in the promises of God. It's a hope founded on sure things and not on the passing promises of this politician or that leader.  Hope in man will always disappoint.

Hope focused on God and his promises makes it possible to endure even our worse days...days of sickness, loss and war, because ahead of us we have a hope and his name is Jesus Christ.