1 Peter 4:12-19
Beloved, you are God’s beloved. Always. At all times and without fail. No matter what you did today or yesterday or what you will do tomorrow. He calls you beloved, so you are loved.
But being beloved by God doesn’t mean we escape the tough things of life. We live under the weight of sin and brokenness in this world. Knowing the full story of the fall of man and the problem of sin, we shouldn’t be surprised by the fiery trials of life. This sin and brokenness brings trouble, heartache, difficulty and suffering of all kinds. This isn’t strange. We see it all through the Old Testament, in the gospel accounts of Jesus, and even all around us this very day.
But we don’t need to live in fear of the suffering.
When we suffer, we share in Christ, the Suffering Servant who endured impossible, unbearable suffering that he didn’t deserve on our behalf. When we too suffer, albeit differently than Christ did, we experience intimacy with Christ that we don’t experience outside of suffering. We draw nearer to him in our desperation and need. He draws near to us in compassion, understanding, comfort, peace and love. So many of us feel closest to Christ when times are tough. That intimacy is a blessing we uniquely experience in the fiery trials.
And just as God the Father equipped Jesus to endure, God also equips us to suffer well. He has given us his Spirit, our Comforter, Counselor and Guide. The Spirit who walks with us through life walks us through suffering as well.
So we don’t suffer like others do. We never suffer alone. We suffer with hope. We know strength, wisdom, comfort and peace are always available to us in Christ. We suffer with our eyes above and beyond our circumstances, the apparent weight of our problems, and our visible present.
We suffer as Christians, as Christ-followers. With eyes on him, we focus on the eternal rather than the present. We know our victory is secure in him. With faith, we walk through trials knowing he is always for us, never against us. We endure while believing there is good and blessing to be found even in the midst of it.
God is God and he is restoring all things, working all things for good, and aligning all to his good and perfect plan. Because God is everything good and nothing bad. And no matter what it looks like out here, we can trust him.
So we battle for that, in the midst of daily life or our troubling world or even heavy suffering. We battle to trust him. We practice it in the good times, the obvious and easy moments. And in the really tough times, we fight for it. We grab hold and wrestle it down, hanging on for dear life. Because we know in our bones that he is trustworthy. No matter what. All the time. Forever and ever.
Amen.
Father, may we not spend our lives in fear of suffering. May we live in abundant, joyous confidence that you are for us and not against us, that you are working for our good, that you love us beyond anything we could fathom. And when the suffering comes, may we find you there. For all of your beloveds today who are enduring suffering and trials of many kinds, may they draw near to you, draw strength from you, find comfort in you, know hope because of you. In all of our suffering, may we find an intimacy we never knew possible. No matter what, God, we declare you are good. There is no shadow in you, no doubt of your character. In you there is nothing bad, only good. You are so, so good. Let us live like it, Father. Amen.
