Session 8

You Can Find Hope In God’s Promises

From 1 Peter: A 20-Day Devotional

A lot of people today make promises they can’t keep. They write checks they can’t cash. They say they’ll love you forever then leave. But that’s not the case with God. Our God is a promise maker and a promise keeper. God not only writes big checks, He can cash them, too.

When we make promises, we’re holding on to hope that the promise maker will keep His word.  Hope is not wishful thinking, but confident expectation.

Peter, one of Jesus’ followers, writes in 1 Peter: “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” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

The hope we have as Christians — the hope that things will get better, that this is not the end, that people can change and that heaven is waiting for us — is not based on wishful thinking but confident expectation. We can have hope because God keeps his promises.

As Peter traveled with Jesus, he saw promises being made and kept. Peter heard Jesus talk about His death and resurrection then saw Him fulfill it. Peter heard Jesus promise He would build His church then witnessed Jesus doing it all through the book of Acts. If anyone knows that God keeps His word, it’s Peter.

God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. The way God fulfills promise after promise in the Bible shows us that we can trust Him to come through today. God’s past provision is the best predictor of His future faithfulness.

Reflect:

• As you look back on your life, how has God kept His promises?
• What’s one promise you are still waiting for God to keep?
• How has knowing Jesus given you hope that the best is yet to come?