Meditation
 
HOPE. REGARDLESS           Dr. Joseph Stowell
 
And into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:4 (NIV)

Hope is a word that belongs in every believer’s vocabulary. The hope of the Christian is not a wistful wish for a carefree life but a hope that is active and unthreatened even in the furnace of life’s worst trials.

The apostle Peter knew something about this kind of hope. He had lived with both the wistful and the fire-tested kind of hope. At the transfiguration of Christ, Peter hoped out loud that he and the others could build a couple of lean-tos and stay on the mountain with Christ forever (Matthew 17:4).

But Peter had to come down from the mountain, and in the course of his ministry he faced “fiery trials” that refined and purified his faith (see 1 Peter 4:12 KJV). After years of faithful service, as a mature and seasoned apostle, he counseled persecuted believers, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering” (4:12).
 
Peter reminded them that a world that persecuted and condemned Christ would certainly not give His faithful followers a pass. But even in the midst of the worst adversity, Peter said, we still have a “living hope,” which includes “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

The hope that Peter wrote about is not a fingers-crossed wish that trouble will pass, but a hope in the truth that no trial on earth can rob us of all the goodness and grace that we have in Him, including eternity.
 
Peter, along with Paul, was convinced that tribulation, distress, persecution, nakedness, and famine are unable to separate us from the love of Christ! (Romans 8:35). Our temporary trials, supported by this by hope, translate into eternal gain as, undeterred, we live to make an impact for Christ’s glory.

That is why Peter could speak about hope and suffering in the same breath He had found the only hope that lasts – the one that Paul called “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

“Identify the “hope” that you have in the midst of trouble. Cling to it and don’t let go.