“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, and into an inheritance THAT CAN NEVER PERISH, SPOIL OR FADE. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)
We must often ask ourselves questions about our pursuits in life: Is this thing I am involved in—this relationship, this mission, this activity—making me hungry for spiritual things? Does it draw me closer to God, or does it in some way keep me away from Him? Is it a wing or a weight in the race of life? Does it speed me on my way, or does it slow me down? You see, this is the problem, it is impossible for the “living hope” to “perish, spoil or fade” but we can be led away and side tracked!
“Therefore…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, FIXING OUR EYES ON JESUS…” (Heb. 12:1-2)
I often pray that God would open my eyes to anything in my life, that may be hindering me from drawing closer to Him! Sometimes health issues or other trials, can sidetrack us, so we are told that,
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of YOUR FAITH–of GREATER WORTH THAN GOLD, which perishes even though refined by fire–may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7)
Paul expressed it like this:
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3:8)
Let’s keep our eyes fixed on Jesus…Bill Stockham