1 Peter 4:12: My friends, do not be surprised at the painful things you are now suffering. These things are testing your faith. So do not think that something strange is happening to you.
Mummy does God want us to suffer?
You mean He wants us to get killed and martyred?
Our daughter asked me these questions this morning after we read 1 Peter 3:8-22 and 1 Peter 4: 1-19 for morning Bible devotions.
I have heard people talk about the ministry of suffering but have not yet quite understood it as something to be sought after. So, I said a prayer in my heart before answering her question. Our children often ask the most complex questions that baffle me on how to answer, so I usually say “Holy Spirit, help me” take a deep breath and answer as I’m led, based on the Bible scriptures I have stored up in my heart with God’s help. On many occasions I have said I do not know the answer, but I will find out and get back to them, which I do, usually after consulting my husband and us searching the Scriptures.
John 16:33: I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]
I gave the example of Paul who had been ship recked and flogged many times on his missionary journeys. It is painful being in a boat as it is being torn apart by a storm. You get could get seriously injured from the winds tossing you and the boat about. Paul got physically injured, but God preserved his life. He recovered.
Psalm 34:19: Many hardships and perplexing circumstances confront the righteous, But the LORD rescues him from them all.
I also mentioned how even though she had a cod last week, she did not deny Jesus because her throat and head hurt, but rather she continually prayed, believed and confessed that healing is the children’s bread, and she is a child of God so by Jesus’ stripes is healed and by His wounds made whole!
1 Peter 1:7: These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So, when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
The Bible says that the trying of our faith purifies it, like when you have a stone that has gold in the middle but is covered by dirt on the outside you do not know that there is gold in the middle until the stone is thrown into the fire. In the fire all the impurities and the dirt melt off, leaving the pure sparkling gold. But if you have fool’s gold or imitation gold, you may not know it is not real until you throw it into the fire and it burns up with nothing is left to show. That is the test to show whether gold is pure or not. Throwing it into fire. Fire is uncomfortable and hot, but it also removes all impurity. Much like trials and hardships. They are not fun, they are uncomfortable and not ideal, but they remove impurities from our lives. They remove the things of the flesh and leave only the pure attributes of God like patience, long suffering, faith, trust in God and not trust in the world.
When we as children of God who have the Holy Spirit inside us, the fruit of the Spirit is the gold and the tests, trials, painful things that Peter talks about a are the fire which helps to purify that gold within us. Through these situations, by the help of the Holy Spirit working in us, our patience grows and shines, long suffering grows and shines as well as kindness and empathy. That is what it means to be purified by trials. The trials represent the fire and all these other things like selfishness, anger, impatience, gluttony are burnt off by the fire as impurities, helping the gold to shine through.
God uses all the things He allows into our lives for our good.
Romans 8:28: And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.
Even Jesus, our perfect example, learned obedience through the things He suffered. Hebrews 5:8
We live in a fallen, sinful world so persecution and trials will come in various forms as long as we are in this world, but Jesus says we should be courageous in facing them because He has overcome the world! Hallelujah!
John 16:33: I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]
It is also important for us to know that God can never allow us to face trials that we can not bear. He know what we can handle because He made us and He loves us and wants us to be victorious in Him.
1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation [regardless of its source] has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience [nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance]; but God is faithful [to His word—He is compassionate and trustworthy], and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability [to resist], but along with the temptation He [has in the past and is now and] will [always] provide the way out as well, so that you will be able to endure it [without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy].
Because of the choice to disobey God in the garden of Eden, sin and evil came into the world, along with trials and persecution. But we were not left helpless, in His great love God, sent His only Son to die in our place and rise again victorious over that sin and death and because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior are partakers in that victory. So yes, there are trials in the world, but we are victorious over them. Yes, there is persecution in this world, but we are overcomers over it because of Jesus.
Romans 8:37: Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us].
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