Hope

Peter reminds us that our hope is a living--energizing hope. The inheritance that it represents is imperishable--eternal; undefiled--eternally pure; will never fade away--eternally undiminished; and reserved in Heaven for you--not by you--and thus, eternally secure. Our Father, omnipotent and immutable, is its Protector and Guarantor. Such a life infusing hope is necessary because in the present tense we face many trials. Trials of our faith. Those trials are always need based--"if necessary." They are never random. God doesn't allow trails in our life because He has nothing better to do. He has a purpose behind each one. And though those trials are different for each of us, the purpose is the same. To show that our faith is genuine, to refine us into His gold to be spent for the furtherance of His kingdom, and to bring praise and glory to His Name--to make the invisible God undeniably "visible" to those He has placed in our lives--even if in some cases that's only for a moment. As we respond to our trials spontaneously--genuinely--just as He responded to His, and as those responses transform us more and more into His likeness, we become the evidence of His mercy, love, and resurrection power. The world will say of us--"They have been with Jesus."

"Hope thou in God"