Hope That Is in You -

Real Hope

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect
1 Peter 3:15

What an extraordinary life we have as believers in Jesus Christ the Lord! We find in 1 Peter 2:9 that we are a peculiar people, called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light. It’s no wonder that unsaved people are so uncomfortable around us.

Consider today’s text, 1 Peter 3:15. From this verse, we see that real hope, hope built with faith in God (Hebrews 11:1), lives in us. Our hope is not like the hopes we had before we received God’s gift of salvation (2 Peter 3:9, one of my favorite verses).

In our old life, our hopes had no merit. Our hopes deserved nothing, and they never would. They were empty thoughts contrived from what we wanted. Now we’re different; we’ve been transformed from death unto life. The hope that we have has substance; it is deeply rooted in the Rock, Jesus Christ.

Now We’re Different

In our old life, our hopes had no merit. Our hopes deserved nothing and were worth nothing; they were empty thoughts contrived of what we wanted. Now we’re different; we’ve been transformed from death unto life. The hope that we have has substance; it is deeply rooted in the Rock, Jesus Christ.

There’s a state park near where I live. It has many hiking trails with varying degrees of difficulty. I’ve often hiked the paths that took me deep into the forest, down into old, narrow crags. In those crags, the trees are fascinating because they are old. Yet, you can see their roots firmly established into the sides of rocks. That’s a picture of the faith that is applied to build our hope.