If purity is having 'ONE THING PRESENT', then what is that 'one thing' in a pure heart? Hope motivates a purity of heart that makes us desire to be more like Jesus... because... that is where we are headed!
Our hope in Christ is tied to our willingness to embrace our peculiarity in this world as followers of Christ. What does that look like? What should that peculiarity look like? It should look like Jesus!
Peculiar means 'unusual' and 'unique'. The Bible calls believers out of the peculiar and strange of this world, which is a competition to be noticed... to a peculiar that is like Jesus. Jesus was peculiar because He wasn't about Himself; He was about His Father, and about people. While we wait for our hope in Christ to be realized, we are called to be a peculiar people... peculiar like Jesus!
What if THE WORST thing you could imagine happened to you? Would your HOPE IN CHRIST sustain you? Or would you blame God and run? The Bible says what happened to Israel coming out of Egypt was an example for us to learn from. So let's look at their story through the lense of hope! They faced many impossible situations. What can we learn from them in the midst of this COVID 19 crisis?