1 Peter 1:8-9 (Hope for Now)

^"You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.  The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls."

I apologize for my absence the past few days.  I have been visiting friends out east, and was not able to do these devotions.  Though, it was such a great time of laughter and refreshing.  Deep friendships, the kind where you can truly bear your soul, are such great gifts from God.  One of the greatest gifts, I'd say.

Well, we left off last week talking about suffering (remember this whole book's theme is suffering in some way or another).  From your comments, it sounds like a lot of us are going through a season of suffering.  If you haven't, I would encourage you to read the last post so that you can remember where all of this is coming from.  So, how can we be assured of our Hope and of this love we have received from God?

Today, I want to work backward in these two verses.  The last sentence is, "The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls."  Remember that in Hebrews 10:39, "But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved."  It is through your belief in God and His Son that you are saved.  Nothing else does it!  So if we put our trust in Him, we do not have to worry about our fate.  It is sealed.

But I want some proof, you say?  Well, one of my new favorite verses is Ephesians 1:13-14 that promises,  "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory."  The Holy Spirit inside of you is your guarantee.  He is just a deposit before the greater gift (heaven and being saved from hell) comes!  Again, when did you receive the Holy Spirit?  This verse says, "when you believed".

Okay, so we know what the reward is...but what does that mean for me today?  Let's look at the rest of the verse.  "You love him [Jesus] even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy."  This, my friends, is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to trusting and believing Him.  How can we trust in something or someone we have never seen?  In John 16:7-11, it is clearly the Holy Spirit who does the work within us to help us trust in Christ.  If you are having trouble trusting God today, pray that the Holy Spirit would begin to develop this trust in God in you.  He will begin this work in you, for we cannot do it ourselves!

And then, once we have trusted Him, we can "rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy" according to our verse today!  You may think, oh, not me.  You don't know the situation I find myself in.  This one is too big -- I can't possibly have joy in the midst of this.  But let me tell you, dear one, that was me just a few days ago!  And God has done a huge work in my heart this weekend.

While I was with a friend, I was talking about one particular area of my life that was causing me such bitterness.  As I described it to her, I was ashamed that the tone of my heart was so angry and bitter.  How did I get here? I thought.  I really did not want to be saying what I was saying.  This attitude does not just happen over night, either; but it had been brewing in my soul for a while now in order to be this potent.  I knew right then that God needed to intervene in a big way because the attitude of my heart was not at all what it should be. 

The next day, we were sitting at the beach, just for a few hours, and God began to meet me there.  My friend, knowing my pain, had encouraged me to read Shauna Niequist's book, Bittersweet, (oh my gosh, I so highly reccomend this book) which is Shauna's account of the bitter things in life that end up having very sweet parts to them.  I needed to hear this considering the place I found myself and all the raw emotions I felt, which left me also feeling very isolated and alone.  It was in these moments, in the midst of my pain, bitterness, and despair, I heard His voice speaking to my soul.

I had just read Shauna's examples of change in life being like the waves of the ocean.  I watched the waves crashing onto the shore every few seconds.  They never stopped.  There were periods of time between the waves crashing that were quieter, but without a doubt, another wave was going to come.  Molly, the waves are like the changes in your life, I heard God say to me.  They will keep coming...and they will be life-long.  There is no stopping them.  And you can choose, my love, if you want to stand in those waves and try to stop them, but they will crash into you every time, drag you across the sandy bottom and pummel you as you go kicking and screaming along trying to regain your footing.  Or...you can swim a little further out to sea, to Me, where the waves aren't quite as powerful, and allow me to float you along, surrendering your life to My direction.  There will still be some crashing, but you can rest assured that I am in control, and if you go with My direction, you won't be battered as much in the waves.  And then I thought of the sea glass that I had seen in a shop just an hour earlier.  It did not get its beautiful, smooth surface from staying on the shore, did it?  No, it was tossed around in the ocean, too, and scrapped along the gritty ocean floor until all it's rough edges were smooth.  Molly, that is what I want to do in you, but you have to float with me, not with your feet planted firmly in the sand.  Let go...

And so, within that hour, I did.  I let it all go.

As I flew home, I began to think, "was that just some emotional moment I had on a beach?"  But no, even at 1 a.m., as I was flying back to Indy, I felt God's calming reassurance, That was real, Molly.  You let it go.  You are trusting me with this one, and floating along in My current.  I was overcome by such a peace at that moment!  By my choice, I didn't have to stand in the crashing waves anymore, getting pummeled over, and over, and over again!  In my current state, and the changes in my life, I can "trust him; and...rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy."  Joy in the midst of all this change?  Really, is this me, God?  But this isn't like me, Lord.   And I felt Him and continue to feel Him in my soul saying...you're right, Molly, it's not you...it's Me.


But friends, let me assure you.  I am not a perfect Christian.  I love Christ with all my heart, and yet, even still in the past months as Paul says,  "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do" (Rom. 7:15).  This has been a process in my life, and I'm sure the process is not over.  I wanted to let go and trust God.  I prayed that prayer for months!  God did not change my heart right away, and He may not change yours immediately either regarding your current circumstance.  But trust Him anyway.  Keep seeking Him daily, hourly even.  Don't give up.  Your faith is being built up; you are being refined in the fire; and you are being sanded and smoothed in the sea.  Change in us takes time.

Though you cannot see Him now, trust Him.  He is with you in your "sea" whatever it may be, and He is developing in you something that you could not develop in yourself.  And it will be good.  In the midst of your circumstances, you will be able to say that you trust Him and have inexpressible joy.  That is my prayer for you today, dear one.  Let go of it...and allow God to carry you in His current.

Thank you, Lord.  And thank you, Shauna, for your words which so gave words and hope to my aching heart.