Believing is seeing

1 Peter 1:8 ESV

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”

Peter is ministering to the Christian exiles in Asia Minor (present day Turkey). He was encouraging them because they were under extreme danger from the Roman rule. Christians had been accused of many things that were not true but for political support the Roman rulers would make sport of killing Christians.

Peter told these exiles, “Though you have not seen Him (Jesus), you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him…”

It’s one thing for the Apostles to believe, they were with Jesus night and day for three and a half years. These exiles only heard stories of Jesus and His teachings, but they were drawn of the Holy Spirit and believed and received the God News with excitement and joy.

We have never seen Jesus, but we believe, why, because as the Holy Spirit drew us to Jesus and we heard the words of Jesus and have read about all the acts of Jesus, and we believed. I hope all of us can say that our lives were changed for the better because of Jesus and what He means to us.

I pray that as we have believed and received Jesus as Lord and our Savior that died and rose again to set us free it becomes inexpressible joy to us. I pray as Peter was telling these exiles, hold on, be strong, be very courageous even in the face of opposition that we too can hold on and be strong and courageous no matter what comes our way.

Prayer:

Jesus, we have believed in You because the Holy Spirit drew us to You. But as we listened and learned of You and what You have done for us, there is no doubt You are our all in all. You give us hope and assurance that we will be with You forever. You give us hope in a dark world and we are alive because You live in us.