I don’t know too many people who enjoy being tested. I remember in junior high taking an entry test for a private school… and I failed. 🙁 Thank God I passed my drivers test a few years later 🙂 which was a huge relief. Much of life’s tests require study, learning and exercising mental, spiritual or physical health.
In Peter’s day, Christians he encouraged and equipped through his letter were uprooted from their homeland and scattered. Hardships and persecutions created instability for the church. It’s not always easy to hear that trials can be used to test our faith.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your 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 1:6-7
Peter seemed to be telling discouraged and disheartened Christians to look ahead… towards their eternal, Jesus inheritance. When we go through trials, being opposed, rejected or feeling like isolated strangers in a compromised world, it’s too easy to slide into discouragement and depression. I can tend to focus on and magnify my trials more than on the faith God wants to produce within me.
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:4-5
GUARDED BY GOD’S POWER
I want to encourage you with the same truths Peter shares in v.4-5. Brothers and sisters, remember that you have an eternal inheritance far more valuable and rewarding, than the trials you’re experiencing. And…we believe and trust that God’s power is guarding our lives and inheritance. We were chosen by God’s great mercy to receive a new life of hope because Jesus is alive! (v3)
So Lord, bring those tests on to strengthen and purify my faith to know You more deeply and intimately. Thank you Jesus!
