July 22

1 Peter 1:21 (NIV84)
21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Because of Jesus we believed in God. God raised Jesus from the dead and glorified him and our faith rests in that hope. If Jesus raised from the dead then so shall we raise from the dead – make sense?

Here is the Word for today from this verse – IT ISN’T US! When we hope in our abilities, in our families help, in our government’s provision, our hope is displaced and we enter a trap! Our hope is really no hope at all because hope in God is a hope that is sure and not “I hope it happens”. The point is that we have to put our hope in Christ, in God’s ability and nothing else. We must empty ourselves of the thinking that we have what it takes if it is apart from Christ. This is actually freedom! We don’t have to provide a thing, only a focus of our faith and hope in God! That is freedom! We don’t have to perform, or be good, or be religious, we have to place our entire lives in the hands of God. That is freedom from performance!