Daily Devotional | March 25, 2020

Blessing God 

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, 

he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 

1 Peter 1:3

May God bless America. May God bless us during these trying times. May God grant us his blessing as we fight this virus. During difficult times, these are all phrases we are bound to hear in one form or another. But when Peter spoke into difficult times, he pointed words of blessing in an unfamiliar direction to many of us. Instead of saying “God bless us,” he tells Christians, “Let us bless God.” 

To be blessed quite literally means to be happy, favored, praised, or spoken well of. These are all things we would like to experience in difficult days, but that is not Peter’s primary interest as he begins his letter. Even as hard times abound horizontally, Peter turns his eyes vertically and says, “May God be blessed!” 

As hardship presses in on Peter and the people he writes to, why is he first and foremost interested in blessing God? Because in God’s mercy he has given us true and living hope. 

TRUE HOPE

Hope is a phrase that will be thrown around a lot in the coming days. “I hope this doesn’t last much longer,” “I hope I don't get the virus,” and “I hope this doesn’t affect my job.” These are all good things to hope for, but if they are our ultimate hope, we set ourselves up for disappointment and despair. While we may have these smaller “hopes,” Peter reminds us of our ultimate hope: we have been born again. Being born again doesn’t mean that you are an extra spiritual person compared to ordinary Christians. It means that you have been given an entirely new life. You were given physical life when your mother brought you into this world, but as powerful as that brith was, you were born spiritually dead. Being born again means that you have received a new spiritual life that begins in the present and continues to live beyond the grave. New birth means we presently have a living and active relationship with the God of the universe, and this relationship is just getting started. Our new birth gives us resurrection life beyond the grave. This, brothers and sisters, is our ultimate hope. 

Some may wonder, how can this give us true hope and not just wishful thinking? No one has ever come back from the grave to show us that it’s real. Peter would say, actually someone has. He reminds us in the last phrase of vs. 3 that our new birth was created and confirmed through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus died and rose again so that when we die, we will also rise with Him. The same power that caused Jesus to resurrect has caused us to be born again. That power will continue to sustain us beyond the grave into everlasting life. 

It’s good to hope for this virus to end. It's good to hope that we and our loved ones remain healthy. It’s good to hope that our world will soon get back to normal, but none of these are our living hope. Our living hope is that we’ve been given resurrection life. This hope became a reality when our savior rose from the grave. 

In light of this hope, how can you bless God today? How can you speak well of, honor, and praise the one who has given you this sure and everlasting hope? 

God, we are all feeling the reality of living in a hopeless world right now. But we bless you because you have given us a sure hope. Through your resurrection we have been born again. From this new spiritual life we bless, honor, and glorify you today even though things seem bleak. God, please help us to remember where our ultimate hope is found as we live through trying times. We ask for your blessing, but more so, we bless you because of your great mercy given through our resurrected and resurrecting savior, Jesus Christ.