3 May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! On account of his vast mercy, he has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4 You have a pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for you. 5 Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time.
6 You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. 7 This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine. (Your faith is more valuable than gold, which will be destroyed even though it is itself tested by fire.) Your genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor for you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words. 9 You are receiving the goal of your faith: your salvation.
Reflection
Building a nest egg, saving for college, buying a home or planning for retirement are all hot topics in the news right now. There’s a lot of disagreement about how we should invest, whether it’s safer to invest in the market or in real estate, or try the new-comer crypto or stick with annuities. Some fear a market crash, and put their savings into gold, others say the economy is solid and diversify their life savings. Will we be able to leave an inheritance? But there’s only one thing that we can depend on to carry us through this life into eternal life; it’s our living hope of salvation through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We’ve been born anew with Christ into this living hope. We have a “pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish, an inheritance kept safe in heaven,” safe guarded by “God’s power.” Our faith in God is more valuable than gold that can be destroyed. Even through tough times of suffering and trials that test our faith, God loves us and stays by our side. Our trust and faith in God, and love for Jesus will bring us unspeakable joy when we receive “the goal of our faith,” our living hope, our salvation.
The third and last of John Wesley’s General Rules is “Stay in love with God.” We do this by working at our relationship
with God. We have experienced God’s grace and love for us, and we in turn, love God and grow to show grace and love to others. We express our love to God through worship and prayer and we experience God, alone and in community,
through bible study, prayerful listening, receiving communion, fasting and participating in small groups. We grow in
our faith when we show mercy to others by doing good works, feeding, clothing, and visiting the sick and imprisoned,
seeking justice and sharing the good news. Wesley called these acts that bring us closer in our relationship to God, the
“Means of Grace.” This is the path of discipleship, following the way of Jesus, loving God and loving others, while we
await our inheritance as children of God, our living hope, our salvation.
by Jeneene Reduker
For Pondering and Prayer
Are you staying in love with God, or do you need to spend some time talking to and listening to God? God loves us and is always by our side waiting for us to have a closer relationship.
Prayer: Holy and Loving God, we often don’t invest the time to be in your loving presence. Forgive us. Speak to our hearts Lord, that we may grow ever closer to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.