Verse: 1 Peter 1:6
6In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…
Devotional Thoughts:
I want to give you a hypothetical situation. Imagine there was a friend in your life that you really didn’t care for. Everyone has known someone that just gets on their nerves right? So imagine you knew someone like that, and though you remain kind to them, you really didn’t want to spend a lot of time around them. However, this friend has season tickets – and excellent seats – to all the Tennessee Vols home games (If you don’t like the Vols, replace them with your favorite team). And you know that you’re their first choice to accompany them to all the games.
Now you have a dilemma. Do you go ahead and distance yourself from a friendship that you didn’t really want in the first place? Or do you maintain/endure the friendship because you know that with that friendship comes great seats to the Tennessee games?
I think most of us would be in agreement here. You don’t maintain a friendship because you may profit from that friendship in some way. That would be rude and callous.
We know that is ridiculous, but that is precisely how many people treat God. They’re interested in the gifts, but not truly the Giver of the gifts. And that is the framework in which the prosperity gospel works. If you’ve never heard of the prosperity gospel, the basic premise is that God just want to bless you. And He wants to bless you here and now. If you just have faith and follow God, you will prosper in every area of your life. Essentially, they see God as a piñata and your faith as the whacking stick. Financially, physically, just follow God and you’ll thrive in each area – that’s what the prosperity gospel says. And it’s wrong.
Points to Ponder:
We, as humans in general, tend to have a fundamental problem with the idea of a loving God who cares for us + a God who gives us trials and difficulties that result in pain and hurt. But Peter makes it clear in this verse that trials will come. But when they do, I believe he gives us two clauses in this verse that can bring us comfort even in the midst of that trial.
First, Peter says that the trials are “for a little while.” Now, “a little while” is a relative term right? If I said I was at a coffee shop for a little while, then I could’ve only been there a couple of hours at the most. But if someone said that they were in the service for a little while, well that implies at least a couple of years in the military.
So, while Peter says “little while” here, he’s not comparing his trials with others in terms of length or anything like that. He saying that, for Christians, in the grand scheme of eternity, no matter how long your trial is, it is just a little while. You could be in a trial from the day you’re born to the day you die, and it would still be just a little while.
He’s essentially saying, have an eternal perspective of your life. No matter what trial you’re going through, or how difficult it may seem, no matter how deep the pain or the suffering of it, that trial has an expiration date.
Second, Peter says the trials are “if necessary.” What does that mean? That means that God has a purpose in these trials. If you’re going through a trial, then it’s necessary. There is a point behind it. God’s molding us. He’s shaping us. He’s growing us, if you would. He’s working to make us more and more mature.
I love this quote by Tim Keller. I think it’s incredibly helpful. He says,
“Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is being cast away from God. He took that so that now all suffering that comes into your life will only make you great.”
So if you’re going through a trial today, take comfort in knowing that God is using it to mold and shape you to look more and more like Jesus.
