Set Your Hope Fully On Grace

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. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16, ESV

THROUGHOUT CHAPTER 1 of his first epistle, Peter talks about the future that awaits those who have been born again to a living hope. He’s speaking to those who can anticipate resurrected life in the presence of God through the resurrected life of Jesus. Peter isn’t looking for an “Isn’t that nice” response to this living hope. Instead, he wants us to think about it with soberness. More than that, he wants us to set our hope fully on “the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” He wants our life in Christ now and into eternity to be both a driving and a steadying force.

This also gets at the heart of what we want for our children. We’re not really interested in our kids growing up to become adults who go through the motions of church attendance or have a vague sense of spirituality. We don’t want faith to be merely something they grew up with and take for granted. Instead, we want them to have informed, passionate optimism about what they are living for.

As our children “set their hope fully” on the grace that will deliver them from the suffering of this life and reward them with an inheritance in the life to come, it will change how they live in the here and now. This new passion will fuel holy living. Young people who have set their hope fully on the grace that will be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ will be quite different from most others in this world. But they will be exactly who God has called them to be —full of unshakable hope and a passion for holiness.

Holy Lord, we can set the glorious truth of hope in Christ before ________. But only you can work in ________ to cause her to set her hope fully on the grace to come when you return. Only you can reveal the worthlessness of worldly passion and replace it with a passion for holiness. So as the one who called ________ to this hope and holiness, create this confident expectation and desire deep in ________’s soul.