If Jesus is so powerful and if Jesus loves me so much, then why am I suffering today? Christians have been wondering about this ever since Jesus called His first disciples. After all, they abandoned Him when He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane precisely because they refused to believe that suffering was an inevitable part of discipleship.

And yet we can’t deny Jesus’ clear prediction that anyone who followed Him would face persecution at the hands of a sinful world (John 15:18-20; Mark 10:30). And world history confirms that the church tends to grow the fastest in the most difficult environments. Moreover, when we look at our own lives, we have to admit that our faith in God deepens the most not in the good times, but in the tough times.

In verse 7, Peter helps us understand why all this is so: our trust in God tends to grow when it is tested, just as gold is rid of its impurities by being melted. And that just makes sense – when everything is going right, we don’t need to trust God to help us or save us, do we? Instead, it’s when we need Him most that we tend to cry out to Him and depend on Him.

At the same time, it is when our need for God is greatest that our trust in Him becomes most precious to us. When all we have left is our hope of His help, we cling to that hope ever more tightly.

And the good news is that this hope will not be disappointed. In verse 7, Peter also reminds us that when Jesus comes again, He will reward all those who have been faithful to Him, giving back to us some of the praise, honor, and glory that we have given to Him even in the midst of our greatest sufferings. And when Christ returns, verse 4 reminds us that those who love and trust Jesus will receive a permanent heavenly inheritance, one that will make all the trials of this present age fade into insignificance.

But how can we know all this is true? That’s the wonderful assurance we find in verse 3. The good news is that if we have trusted in Christ as our Savior and if we have bowed the knee to Him as our Lord, if our sinful hearts have been awakened into a new life which has allowed us to place our faith in Christ, that is only because God has caused this rebirth in us. Just as the Father raised Jesus from the dead, God is the One Who takes the initiative in our salvation, taking away our hearts of stone and giving us hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26-27), hearts that are thus able to respond to this new life with love and trust for Him.

And God has done all of this because of His great mercy, His pity, His compassion on us. So no matter what may happen to us today, let us trust in Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. Let us look for His coming with confidence. And let us rest in God’s great love for us.

I Peter 1:1-12 (ESV)

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 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.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,
11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.