A New Birth
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an
inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for
you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a
little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of
your faith – being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested
by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus
Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even
though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an
indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your
faith, the salvation of your souls.
Life is hard for everybody, but it is
much harder for some than for others. Putting our trust in
Christ as our Savior does little to change that. Nothing in the Bible
promises us a free pass merely because we are Christ’s followers. In fact, some
of our wounds may not heal and some of our deficiencies may not be corrected in
our lifetime. They may even get worse. Yet our deformities and weaknesses are
only temporary.
If you are in some way damaged by past
abuse or feeling defeated by sin, or if you feel so inferior to others that you
walk with your eyes to the ground, take heart in what God has in store for you.
Live today with the courage God gives you. Make what you can of your
afflictions. But rejoice, because all that degrades and limits you is only
temporary. It will be gone – some of it sooner rather than later.
If you are a living hope in Christ,
you can deal with your past because of your future. God’s glorious best for you
lies ahead. Christians can cope with their past because they have hope for the
future.