Welcome to the PoG blog! Please pray:
Lord of the Universe,
I come before you today acknowledging that you are God and I am not. I confess to you all of my sins, including those that I will commit today. Please forgive me, and wash me in the cleansing blood of Jesus shed on the cross. I thank you for creating me, loving me, and buying me back from sin, death, and the devil. Thank you also for all the physical gifts and spiritual gifts you have blessed me with. God, please speak to me and work in me during these next minutes as I focus on your Word.
In Christ Jesus’ name I pray. Amen!
1 Peter 1:3 – 9
3 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, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 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. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 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. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
He is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!! Hallelujah!!!
I love Holy Week and Easter. It is so rich. As beautiful as Christmas is, the symbol of our faith is a cross, not a manger. Part of what makes Easter so rich is that it gives me so much HOPE and draws forth PRAISE. I think that is what Peter is writing about in the above scripture. Look at how many places he speaks of hope and praise: “Praise be to the God”, “a living hope”, “in all this you greatly rejoice”, “may result in praise, glory, and honor”, “are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy”.
Peter recognizes that life will be no bed of roses and we will have to endure hardships for a little while. But even in the midst of that, Christians have reason to be full of hope, because of Jesus’ victory over death at Easter. And Christians should overflow in praise and worship. Because of God’s mercy and love for us, we are full of joy which leads us to want to praise God at all times and in all circumstances.
“This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” As we go about living our lives today, let’s remember what Christ did for us on the cross and in the empty tomb. May that remembering help us to live lives of HOPE and PRAISE!
Mark