A well-known minister declared that Christians must set their minds into choosing to have hope, regardless of circumstances.
Citing 1 Peter 1:13-21, Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Texas, said that Christians are "meant to hope fully" by preparing and setting their minds into this mindset.
"Hope gives us the confidence to live with a great deal of joy regardless of life's circumstances," Chandler said in his sermon last Sunday, reported by The Christian Post.
"Hope is a choice. Hope doesn't just happen to you," he further stated.
The pastor pointed out that people can choose to hope because God has designed and built them as an "intellectual psychological creatures" who can choose what they can dwell on their minds.
"You have God-given, God-empowered, God-redeemed ability to choose what you think about. You have a choice regarding where you focus your energy. You have a choice regarding what you live for," he said, sharing a quote from Jenny Allen.
Chandler noted that Allen's statement is relative to what Paul stated in Philippians 4:8, wherein believers are called to think only what is pleasing.
Moreover, he stressed that people have the option to what they feed their minds with, either with evil things such as anger, anxiety, depression and rage, or good things such as hope, beauty, gratitude and gladness.
He went on to say that no one can ever force a person into "creating inputs" into people's minds, like what he and his wife chose to do some years ago.
The minister shared that they decided to avoid watching the news in order to protect his soul, explaining that he gets to be emotional seeing evil things such as injustice. He also "trimmed" the individuals he follows on social media because he does not want people to provoke him towards anger, anxiety or fear.
He questioned the congregants against giving people "an end to steal" the things that are "rightfully" for them as Christians.
He then challenged them to seriously "prepare [their] minds for action and put their hope fully in the Word of God.
He added that as spiritual "exiles," Christians can live in the world by hoping fully - choosing to think only about things that are good and right.
The pastor said that the world regularly gives people something that they can get angry about and frustrated with. But he warned against this kind of thing, saying that it is just a "ploy of the enemy" to take away the "gladness that is found in hope" in the hearts of believers.
He emphasized that Christians have already won. Thus, they have "to orient their whole being" around this truth and to hope fully in the Gospel.
Further, he underscored that alongside living with hope, believers must also be holy in all their conduct, as stated in 1 Peter 1:15-16.
The minister explained that the command to being holy refers to "transformational holiness," wherein Christians increasingly become more like Christ as they mature in their walk with Him.
"The Bible has a moral vision for the Christian life that it doesn't apologize for," Chandler declared.
