...HOPE in God's grace...

“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.

Many times over the years people have told me how hard it is to have HOPE. And many times we have prayerfully reflected on the meaning of the grace of God. When I think of God’s grace I think of grace as “God giving us what we need, not what we deserve.” I imagine I could write an endless volume of reflections on my experience of God’s grace. When I have hurt people who love me, and they forgive me and come back to me as the friend they have always been — they give me what I need, not what I deserve. I need their mercy and forgiveness and love, not their anger or blame or isolation. God does this to me all my life. He give me His love. He gives me His mercy. God gives me HOPE. God gives me faith in Him.

The grace of God, however, is always given to me on its way to others. I must — and I so deeply desire to — pass along the grace of God to others.

Grace disappears when I put the brakes on God’s grace and concluded that the grace of God is for me alone. The grace of God mushrooms when I pass it along to others.

So you and In must “set our HOPE fully on the grace” of God that is fully revealed to us in Jesus Christ. We know we have HOPE because we know Jesus Christ. We have HOPE because we have the Love of Christ, whose love we pass along to others. We have HOPE because we have the gift of faith in Jesus Christ which we pass along to others.

Years ago when I was a young man working in a boatyard in Maine, building wooden boats, I made a terrible mistake and drilled two large holes through the bottom of the boat. When the owner of the boatyard, along with the oldest, most experienced boatbuilder in the boatyard, together discovered the holes in the boat, the old boatbuilder told the owner that he, this old veteran boatbuilder, was to blame for drilling the two holes in the boat. That day I was never fired from my job because the old veteran boatbuilder gave me grace. He took the blame know that I would have been fired immediately. That day I received the grace of God. I received what I needed — a job — not what I deserved — to be fired!

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the unity of the Holy Spirit, be with you and shower you with HOPE in the grace of God!  And may you pass along to others your HOPE in Almighty God!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.