To Encourage You

1 Peter 1:6 “. . . now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials . . .”

One of the most wonderful things about the Bible is that it gives us God’s perspective on things.  If you are a believer, that perspective changes everything.  In 1 Corinthians 2:16, Paul tells Christians essentially this very truth when he tells us that, “We have the mind of Christ.”  That doesn’t mean that we actually have his physical mind transplanted into our heads. Rather, it’s telling us that by God’s Spirit, all believers have available to them the thoughts of Christ about everything that matters in life in the pages of holy writ and we’ve also been given the Holy Spirit to help us to understand its meaning.  One example is in the excerpt from 1 Peter 1:6 above. Here Peter is talking to persecuted Christians.  In contrast to what some of today’s most popular preachers would tell us, to become a Christian does not mean that all will now be beautiful in our world. For example, we see the church of the first century in a place of extreme stress.  Peter found himself in such straits, and eventually he would die a martyr’s death.  So why is that?  Why should things be difficult for those who can call the all-powerful God their Father?  Shouldn’t such a Being make all things right for those who are called “the apple of His eye” (Zechariah 2:8)?  

It’s to this issue that Peter gives us God’s perspective on things.  First, he tells us that from God’s perspective, His children suffer only for “a little while.”  But then I think about people like Joni Eareckson Tada who became a paraplegic at the age of 17 from a diving accident and has now served the Lord while suffering with this condition for over 54 years.  That’s a long time from our perspective, but from God’s eternal view of things, it’s but a short moment of time.  And because of the eternal life He’s given us, one day she will look back at 54 years from the perspective of eternity and call it a “very, very, very little while!”  Indeed, Romans 8:18 tells every Christian that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” 

Still, what’s the reason any Christian suffers?  What’s the point of it all? So, again we look to what God has said about such things.  He tells us that our “various trials” – in whatever form for whatever time – are “necessary.”  This God Who is sovereign over even the sparrow that falls tells us that whatever comes into our lives has come there (including that which is occurring right now), because it is necessary.  But in what sense?  Necessary for what?  Again, we have been given God’s perspective.  He’s told us in the words that follow those above that the purpose of our trials is “so that the tested genuineness of (our) faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).  Such tests aren’t necessary from GOD’S perspective, for He is fully aware of the genuineness (or not) of our faith. Rather, this testing is for both us and others whose lives intersect with us.  It’s to prove that our faith is real.  The fires of life’s trials reveal who we really are, not only to others but also to ourselves. 

You see, one of Satan’s names is “the accuser of our brothers” (Revelation 12:10), and accusation is one of the main ways he works. If he can convince a believer that he is a hypocrite and a fake, it can devastate that person and set them on the sidelines of the walk of faith. But God works to prove us to ourselves through tests that refine us by burning out the impurities and revealing the gold that lies underneath.  Put another way, it is by testing that God “prunes us” in a way that is designed to make our lives more fruitful to the glory of God (John 15:2).  It is that fruitfulness that God is talking about in 1 Peter 1:7, that will “result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” And if you are a Christian, isn’t that exactly what you want?  Don’t you want, above all else, to glorify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?  If you are a Christian that is truly your heart of hearts, for it’s a desire that God has placed within you when He indwelt you with His Holy Spirit.  And so Peter goes on to say that despite our trials, rather, because of God’s wonderful perspective about them, we can inevitably rejoice. 

It’s such a strange reaction to suffering, isn’t it?  But that’s the perspective of Jesus Christ, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

Praise His glorious name!