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Yesterday we learned that exiles find hope as they cling to the promise that God is keeping an inheritance for us. But for some of you perhaps, the thought of a great inheritance leads to great anxiety. You don’t doubt God’s ability to keep that inheritance, you doubt your ability to persevere until the end. Somehow, someway, you’re going to mess this up. Your greatest fear is being one of those poor souls on judgment day who hears those horrifying words; “depart from me, I never knew you.” If that’s you, there’s another future promise you must cling to.

God is Keeping Us for an Inheritance (v. 5)

Peter continues in 1 Peter 1:5, an inheritance is kept for those “who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Here we learn the glorious truth that God is not merely keeping an inheritance for us, He is keeping us for an inheritance. That word “guarded” refers to the deploying of a military presence to protect a city or a nation. God is deploying an arsenal to guard you until the day Jesus returns and your salvation is complete.

But notice how we are being guarded: through faith. To the comfortable Christian, overconfident that you could never be one of those who hears those dreaded words from Jesus, hear this. You must persevere. Yes, God is keeping you, but you must keep believing!

Perhaps you’re wondering, how do I keep believing? Perhaps the two most important things you can do is to faithfully spend time in God’s Word and with God’s people. Recently the Barna Group conducted a survey to measure America’s engagement with the Bible during the pandemic. Christianity Today writes this: “Between early 2019 and 2020, the percentage of US adults who say they use the Bible daily dropped from 14 percent to 9 percent . . . . A decrease of 5 percentage points in a single year was unprecedented in the annual survey’s 10-year history; between 2011 and 2019, daily Bible readers had basically held steady at an average of 13.7 percent of the population. But the decline continued during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic, and by June, the percentage of daily Bible users had dropped to 8.5 percent.”

Now I’m not surprised that the average American citizen is reading their Bible less amidst everything that’s going on. The damning part of the survey was the fact the decline in Bible engagement was even more pronounced among those who called themselves Christians. The article continues: “Amid the pandemic, a larger decline occurred among the Americans who say their choices and relationships are shaped by the Bible . . . . In January, 27.8 percent of American adults were Bible engaged. By June, after months of quarantine and church closures, that figure was down to 22.6 percent.”[i]

Has that been true of you, Christian? If we could measure media intake over the past five months, against your Bible intake how would it look? That’s why I challenged you last week to commit to fast from one form of media intake over the duration of this study and spend intentional time every week in the book of 1 Peter. Christians, if we want to persevere, we need to be in God’s Word and with God’s people.

Some of you aren’t comfortable Christians. You feel very afflicted. Your heart is heavy, your spirit is anxious, and you’re telling yourself that you must be one of those doomed to hear those dreaded words. Notice Peter says, “by God's power [we] are being guarded through faith.” How does God’s power guard us? His power keeps your faith from failing! Take heart, afflicted saint. You will persevere!

When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast

When the tempter would prevail, He will hold me fast

I could never keep my hold Through life’s fearful path

For my love is often cold He must hold me fast

 

Those He saves are His delight, Christ will hold me fast

Precious in His holy sight, He will hold me fast

He’ll not let my soul be lost, His promises shall last

Bought by Him at such a cost, He will hold me fast

 

For my life He bled and died, Christ will hold me fast

Justice has been satisfied, He will hold me fast

Raised with Him to endless life, He will hold me fast

Till our faith is turned to sight when he comes at last

 

He will hold me fast He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so He will hold me fast [ii]

Exiles find hope as they focus on their future. We serve a God who is keeping an inheritance for us, and keeping us for an inheritance. We are meant to find strength in the present as we look to the future.

C.S. Lewis puts it this way: “A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. . . . If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”[iii]  

 

[i] David Roach, “Bible Reading Drops During Social Distancing,” News & Reporting, accessed August 8, 2020, https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/july/state-of-bible-reading-coronavirus-barna-abs.html.  

[ii] https://sovereigngracemusic.bandcamp.com/track/he-will-hold-me-fast

[iii] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Harper Collins, 2001), 134.