"After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all
grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect,
confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever.
Amen.” (1 Peter 5:10–11, NASB95)
There are some statements in the Bible that, while hard to
hear, are used to help reframe our perspective. Suffering never seems short. It
does not matter how long it lasts, it always seems like so much more. I remember
the Northridge earthquake on Martin Luke King Day, January 17, 1994. It seemed
like it went on forever. But Caltech reports otherwise: The actual rupture of
the fault only lasted about 8 seconds, but because of amplification and
reverberation of the seismic waves through the complex of faults, sediment, and
mountains, most people felt shaking for 20 to 30 seconds. (Source: http://www.caltech.edu)
The actual shaking really wasn’t that long, but the strength of it was immense
and the effects were far reaching and long lasting. For many their lives were
changed in those few seconds in dramatic ways.
The question for all of us in these times of suffering is
how are we going to respond. For us, it led after many months of struggle to
our moving away from Northridge to Oregon and me eventually having the
opportunity to go to seminary and enter vocational ministry as a pastor. There
were others, though, who in an instant lost their lives while others still
suffered only minor inconveniences that were of short duration. And there were
large numbers whose lives were dramatically changed for a long time afterward. But
from an eternal perspective every single person who was affected by the
earthquake only suffered “for a little while.”
Recognizing this and looking to what God did in the months
and years after the earthquake we have chosen in our family to celebrate every
Martin Luther King Day also as “Earthquake Day.” No, this is not a new
national, state or regional holiday. It is our family’s day of remembrance and
thankfulness when we celebrate together as we eat fractured tacos and broken
glass cake while we speak of the faithfulness of our God. Since that time we
have even brought two children who weren’t born at the time into the event.
Several months after moving to Oregon I was given the
opportunity to teach an adult Sunday School class, and after much deliberation
I selected a New Testament letter that I had not taught before. On the first
Sunday of June in 1995 I taught James 1:1 as an introduction to this letter
from the half-brother of Jesus. In the midst of preparing for week two I was
called into a mandatory office meeting by the mortgage company I was with. We
were told that as of that afternoon our office and many of their small market
offices were being closed. The passage I was preparing for week two is James
1:2-4 where we read, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter
various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And
let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2–4, NASB95)
In our last look at 1 Peter we read that we were to be sober
because we have a very real enemy. Here in James we are told that we are to
consider it all joy or to actively think about joy as we encounter trials of
all sorts. This is not because trials are joyful. Many of them are quite
sorrowful. But in the midst of the sorrow and the other aspects of the trial we
know that we are firmly held in the hand of our loving God. He will never let
go of us, and He will even use the very events of the trial for His glory and
our growth. We read that it is through those trials that we grow in our faith
and in our ability to trust Him even more. As we walk through difficult days we
see that our God gives us the ability to endure. As faith is put to the test we
see that our God is immensely faithful. We continue to read that the fruit of
this endurance is our perfection and completion. We can never become any more
saved, but we definitely can grow in faith as we learn to love and walk with
our God who encloses us before and behind and who keeps His hand on our
shoulder (Psalm 139). In Him we are made compete to do all that He has called
us to do and to endure all of the other stuff that comes along the way.
As Peter pens these last words of his letter he tells his
readers (and us) a similar message. After we have suffered for a little while
God will perfect us. He has called us as His beloved children and given us a
great eternal inheritance. We are heaven bound with no chance of the train
jumping track. He called us. His Son paid the price for our ticket, and He is
the conductor who will being us safely in. There is no other track to travel. It
is only by Christ that we are saved. He is the narrow path to salvation and
full entrance into the glory of God.
What remains is the bumpy path that includes our being
perfected or being conformed more and more each day and through each trial to
the image of His beloved Son. We are as righteous as we will ever be because
Jesus Christ is our righteousness. But the more He grows us the more we
resemble just who we are in Christ.
He will confirm us. I imagine that most of us have had those
moments when we doubt. We might not doubt our salvation, but we might doubt the
certainty of God’s promises. The amazing thing about God continuing to work in
and through us is that He demonstrates over and over again that He is real and
that He will do exactly what He promised to do. We become a living confirmation
of the truth of Christ.
And as we see His faithfulness demonstrated time and time
again we are strengthened to trust and do even more. This is what James said as
we endure trails our endurance grows, and endurance grows we become more and
more complete and equipped for what He have given us to do.
The result is that we become firmly established, able to
stand strong against the evil one. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be
steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that
your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58, NASB95)
Peter ended this with, “To Him be dominion forever and ever.
Amen.” (1 Peter 5:10–11, NASB95) Our God is absolute in all ways. He created
and He is the authority over all that He created. He kingdom is forever, and we
are told that to it there is absolutely no end. Jesus said at the end of
Revelation “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning
and the end.” (Revelation 22:13, NASB95)
It’s not easy at times. God knows that. But we also know
that He is the One who makes all things bearable knowing even this that after a
short while we will see Him. “He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am
coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with
all. Amen.” (Revelation 22:20–21, NASB95)
“Amen” is such a wonderful word. Beyond it being the word
that has been and is used to close our prayers, its meaning speaks to the truth
of those words, “this is a trustworthy statement” or in the case of our
prayers, ‘God make it so because surely you are the One who is trustworthy.’
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