For a hope that is alive

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you. In your great mercy you have given us new birth. We did not earn it and could not have arranged it. You raised Jesus from the dead and in doing so you made our hope a living thing, kept for us in heaven where nothing can spoil it or fade it or take it away.

We confess that we often live as though our hope were fragile. We let it rise and fall with the week. Forgive us. Teach us to rest on what is finished rather than on what is uncertain.

Some of us are in the fire today. We do not ask you to pretend it is not hot. We ask you to do what you have promised, to prove our faith genuine and to bring us through with something purer than we went in with. Shield us by your power until the salvation you are preparing is revealed.

We have not seen Jesus. Still we love him. Fill us with joy that cannot be put into words, and let that joy be the proof, to us and to those around us, that he is alive. In his name we pray. Amen.