What Really Matters?

1Pe 1:17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 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. 1Pe 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

We could put our faith in many different things. We could put our faith in the Federal Reserve Board to correctly predict and manipulate the direction of the financial markets. We could put our faith and trust in our police and/or parents and/or educators to forestall the plans of third-graders planning to harm their teacher. We could even place our faith in our powerful military to protect us from the scourge of terrorism. And by placing our faith in these institutions, we might be proven right – maybe they can protect our economy, our children, or our country. But will that really insure my security? Are these institutions really the rock upon which I build my house and place the hopes of my life and my children’s life?

Peter in the above passage reminds us that there is no power that can provide that degree or quality of hope other than the power of God himself. People and institutions make big promises. But it’s the power of God that leads us into a “life-annointing” and “authority” and gives us courage and boldness.

It is not the “perishable” things that will prove themselves reliable in our lives nor prove themselves really all that powerful in the things that really matter. Life, real life, comes only from the “lamb who was slain.” God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong! (1 Cor 1:27) And so in God’s Kingdom, the life worth having is the life that is poured out in love for others. What we discover in that life is that all the things we hoped we would gain through our own agendas really come about when we surrender to God’s purposes! As Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you!” (Matthew 6:33)