Therefore, prepare your minds for action, and being sober-minded;
set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. 1:13
I praise you for finally convincing the legalist and performer in me, that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. And I praise you for the ongoing schooling in the sufficiency of your grace, for all the broken things in my life: broken relationships, broken health, broken promises, broken church—broken me.
And now I praise you for commanding me to set my hope on yet-to-be-received grace—the unleashed fullness, the unfettered wonder, the undiminished glory of your contra-conditional love for us in Jesus. There is no God like you—no other God so immeasurably generous with helpless, rebellious, ill-deserving people like us.
Father, help me to remember that this hope-setting command is just as much a command to be obeyed as “Do not lie, do not steal, and do not covet.” You are serious about where we set our hope, for you know if we don’t set our hope on your grace, we will set it somewhere else: on saviors that cannot save, on people who are not God, on gospels that are not gospels, on idols that will ultimately fail us.
Father, I’ve never so looked forward to the Day when Jesus will be fully revealed—when the firstfruits of grace will give way to the full harvest of grace; when, as the Bride of Christ, we will enter the perfections of life in the new heaven and new earth. Until that Day, deploy us more fully into your story of redemption and restoration.
Where would you have us work for justice and beauty? Where would you have us show the daily-ness of your mercies and prove the wonders of your love? May the gospel enable us to walk more humbly with you, our God, as we serve the least and the lost. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ trustworthy and triumphant name. - Scotty Smith
Scotty Smith is Founding Pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN and a Council member with The Gospel Coalition
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