This week, as we get closer to Christmas, we’ll continue our theme of Immanuel—God with Us. This week, we will focus on His gift of hope.

One of the most powerful passages in the Bible about hope is found in the first chapter of the book of 1 Peter. Listen closely to what he shares with us …

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (v. 3-9 NIV)

Did you catch how Peter described hope in verse 3? … living … living hope. Why did he say that? Why would he describe hope as living, alive? He goes on to say, “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.” Christ’s death was the sacrifice for our sins but His resurrection took everything a step further and offered us a future and a hope. Hope is alive in Christ, because of Christ. A relationship with Him is not just a source of hope or an access to hope, but actually a relationship, a friendship, with hope itself. Jesus … is … hope. With that in mind. listen again to a portion of the words of Paul.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

I have found in my own life that when my relationship with Christ is struggling, when my faith is being challenged, I also struggle with hope. But then the opposite is true as well. When we are close to Jesus, we feel close to hope. In this Christmas season, try and set aside the busyness and trappings and allow some time for the actual reason of the holiday at all—the birth of hope, the coming of Immanuel, Jesus’s arrival to be born into the world and into our hearts.

Let’s pray: “Immanuel, Lord Jesus, thank You that You don’t just provide hope, offer us hope, but You are hope. Without You, we are dead in our sin. But with You, no matter our circumstances today, we can be alive inside a living hope. As above, so below.”