LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

1 Peter 1:3-5 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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

The words of a grand old hymn are ringing in my head.

My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness.

I long for that to be absolutely true of my life.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

No matter how sweet and inviting the world looks, it will not last, nor will it satisfy. I will lean only on Jesus.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

As I contemplated the application of the truths in that song to my life, I was reminded by the Holy Spirit of the hymn’s additional verses.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

No matter how dark the world begins to look around me, and how severe the storms of my life become, I know I stand secure in Christ. Why? Because His Word NEVER fails. His promises are ALWAYS fulfilled. In Christ our hope is secure!

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

After renewing my commitment to live by faith in Christ alone, the final verse came to my mind. It fixed my eyes where they are supposed to be all the time – on the coming of Jesus to reclaim what is rightfully His. Since I am His, I will be a part of the Lord’s worldwide reclamation project.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

With our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who is waiting for us at the finish line, let us faithfully run the race that He has marked out for us, knowing that He is running it with us as our eternal coach and cheerleader.

Pastor John