Confident Hope

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13, ESV).

It doesn’t take much to see that the whole world has gone crazy.

In the midst of so much chaos, where can we stake our hope? Exhorting us to endurance, the Apostle Peter urged us to prepare “your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The energy to live the Christian life is found in one place—in our focused, conscious choice to put our hope in Jesus. Hope is the confident expectation of better days ahead.

As you look to the future:

Don’t set your hope on your physical health—set your hope on Jesus. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Don’t set your hope on your stuff—set your hope on Jesus. “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions’” (Luke 12:15).

Don’t set your hope on people—set your hope on Jesus. “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God” (Psalm 146:3, 5).

No leader, pastor, family member, friend, or spouse can be everything that we hope and dream he will be. People, places, and positions always let us down. Only Jesus is worthy of all our hopes and all our confidence. Maybe you find yourself a little down today. Like Peter standing on the water, the moment you take your eyes off the Lord you start to sink (Matthew 14:22–33). Lift up your eyes; set your hope fully on Jesus.

Our confident expectation is in God, who sees, knows, and will ultimately turn an upside-down world right-side up at the appearing of our Lord. Every righteous decision will be rewarded. Every wrong choice will be judged. Every motive will be revealed.

Is your faith faltering as you look at the world coming unhinged around you? Are you struggling to carry on? Do you need hope that will endure?

Set your hope fully on Jesus.

Journal
• On what might you be tempted to set your hope—your physical health, your talents, your stuff, other people?
• How can you tell if your hope is in anything other than Jesus?

Pray
Father, thank You for sending Your Son to be my hope. You knew that this world would never satisfy my longings, so You sent Your precious Son to do that. Forgive me when I look to anything else for my hope. Thank You that You are fully deserving and capable of holding my every hope. In Jesus’ enduring name, amen

— James MacDonald

For more from James MacDonald and the “Walk in the Word” Bible teaching ministry, visit WalkInTheWord.com.