In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
What if getting everything you wanted still left you wanting more?
When Andre Agassi was a boy, he dreamed of becoming the best tennis player in the world. Years later, he’d achieved it. He reached number one, won Grand Slam titles, Olympic gold, and earned the admiration of millions. Yet the opening sentence of his autobiography surprised readers. He admitted: “I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis.”[1] Agassi discovered what many people eventually do: achieving your dreams doesn’t always satisfy your heart.
We tell ourselves the right school, the next promotion, the right relationship, financial security, or recognition will finally make us content. But one pastor said our problem isn’t that our desires are too great. It’s that “we have no idea how infinitely deep our desires really are.”[2]
Peter, one of Jesus’s closest followers, explains why our deepest longings point beyond this world. He wrote: “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV).
You can be born into a living hope—to set your heart on something imperishable, something eternal, something beyond your deepest desires. This living hope isn’t simply for heaven; it’s the only hope large enough to satisfy your heart today.
Perhaps the reason nothing in this world completely satisfies you is that God created you for an inheritance that finally will.
[1] Open, by Andre Agassi with J. R. Moehringer (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009), 1.
[2] Gospel in Life (@gospelinlife), “Our Birth: Cosmic,” Instagram Reel, June 11, 2026, https://www.instagram.com/p/DZdHRvvRzM6/.
