Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, July 13, 2026
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
With apologies, dear friends, I am unable to reflect on the 1 and 2 Timothy passages of this summer series in detail in these devotions. My father recently died and I find myself unable to concentrate. Therefore I am bringing back the work I did on 1 and 2 Peter from four years ago and hope that even if you have read them before, you will find them helpful to your daily walk with God. Without further ado…
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It hadn’t occurred to me to think about hope as living or dead. What would a dead hope be? Maybe hope in something that can and will never come to pass. Except how could we know for sure? I look at the state of my country and I still want to have hope in our future, but it sure is hard. Do I call that a dead hope? Or does that mean I don’t think with God all things are possible? It’s a conundrum.
On the other hand, maybe it’s as simple as this: a dead hope is a hope in anything that isn’t God. It’s putting my trust in people or things or addictive substances. It’s wishful thinking and grandiosity parading as hope. Whereas a living hope is complete trust in God that, come what may, even if the absolute worst happens, ultimately we’ll be okay. Because God in Christ loved us so ridiculously much that God endured the worst we could ever face in solidarity with us, and opened the way to eternal life with God.
With that kind of living hope, we can’t help but be transformed, and inspired to live our lives to God, asking what God’s will for us is, and taking joy in carrying it out.
What does “living hope” mean to me?
