Hope Before the Need

Friday - December 18th

"Hope is Here" Advent Devotionals - Day 18

Scripture to Read Today: 1 Peter 1:18-21

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Christ was chosen before the creation of the world,

but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Through him you believe in God,

who raised him from the dead and glorified him,

and so your faith and hope are in God.

1 Peter 1:20-21

The German doctor responsible for the first legitimate COVID-19 vaccine cites a breakfast with her husband early in 2020 as key to the successful rapid creation, production, and distribution of the vaccine. "I can remember the precise day, January 24, when we made the decision at the breakfast table," Ozlem Tureci, the chief medical officer of BioNTech said Thursday.

Tureci recounted how her husband and business partner, Ugur Sahin, predicted that the outbreak of a mysterious respiratory illness in the Chinese city of Wuhan had all the ingredients for a global pandemic.

"He alerted all of us and made us, that is, the entire company, the supervisory board, the company's owners, pivot from cancer therapy to this program and divert our resources to developing a vaccine," she said.

With new technology their company has focused on for the last two decades, Tureci and Sahin took on the coronavirus challenge, and it paid off. They partnered with Pfizer to do widespread testing and to accomplish mass production. Now, Britain, the United States, and other nations have approved the Pfizer vaccine developed by BioNTech.

Tureci and her husband Sahin saw the need for a coronavirus vaccine before many of us had even heard of the coronavirus. On January 24 of this year, they decided to pursue hope for humanity before humanity knew it needed that hope. Now, with the release of the vaccine, hope is here.

Our sin problem before God needed a solution. The Old Testament demonstrated that apart from God intervening, our situation was hopeless. We could do nothing to rescue ourselves spiritually. 1 Peter 1:20 tells us that "Christ was chosen before the creation of the world." The verse says that He has just now been revealed to us. Jesus was sent to Bethlehem to unleash God's redemptive plan. But, the decision to send His Son to earth was not a rash, in-the-moment, kind of decision. No. Before God created the world, He knew we would need a rescuer.

Romans 5:8 says that Christ died for us while we were still guilty sinners before Him. God knew we needed salvation. He sent Jesus to be the Savior. Hope is here.

What fascinates me as we ponder Christ this Christmas is how God provided hope before we even knew we had a need! God knows our needs long before we recognize them. When we go to Him in prayer, our hearts lean on Him for the meeting of our needs. The great blessing is that He already knows and knows what will be best for us. Whatever your need today, God knows it. He knew it long before you did. As you pray today and carry your burdens to Him, thank Him for knowing already. Thank Him for providing you hope in Christ!

God planned hope for us in Christ long before we even knew our need! Hope is Here!