Key verse: “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” (1 Peter 1:3a)

As we move from reimagining how we can readily share faith with those on our “frontlines” – those people we naturally connect with through the things that we do every day – our strong focus as we look ahead towards Christmas needs to be on Jesus. He is the one through whom we can embrace living hope!
Yet, for so many people just at the moment, being able to see and embrace a sense of hope has been masked by the last few months of challenge, separation, and suffering caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. How, then, can we still positively talk up and demonstrate our “living hope”, our undeterred and unstoppable daily living out our hope as Christians?
1 Peter may well be a short book in the Bible but it’s packed full of encouragements to keep focused on “the way of Jesus” as its readers grow in their trust in God and persevering in ways of Christlikeness at all times, including times of challenge and suffering. Peter’s strong purpose is to point us towards all that God has done for us through Christ, then showing us how we can apply that in our daily lives. 2 Peter and Jude are even shorter books of the Bible but in different ways they add to 1 Peter, so be encouraged to read the whole of all three books at some point over the coming weeks.
As we reach Advent and the Christmas season, our focus will naturally be on Jesus, but at the same time we will be holding to some of the key texts from 1 Peter and linking them into the familiar passages in Luke of the promise and birth of Jesus. That will enable to keep going deeper with all that 1 Peter teaches us about applying “the way of Jesus” in our own lives and daily routines.