DEVOTION
THE 1ST LETTER OF PETER
INEXPRESSIBLE AND GLORIOUS JOY
1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his
great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can
never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are
shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be
revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a
little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These
have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even
though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory
and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you
love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are
filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal
of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
NIV
Having looked at our inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fade
that is kept in heaven for us, and that we are shielded by God’s power, we now
move on to rejoicing. This rejoicing is even during a short while that we may
have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. We will get to the reason, but
for now, let us consider this suffering grief in all kinds of trials. Maybe we
should just let this apply to those first recipients Peter wrote to and forget
about any trials we might face. But that is not the case, for we are faced with
different kinds of trials they may have had, but the fact remains life is not
always a bed of roses. What about the trial of losing our job, or of watching a
loved one become so ill, that death is imminent? What about facing an illness ourselves
that seems overwhelming, or having to deal with constant pain in our body? What
if we are falsely accused of some wrongdoing? We may have to watch a loved one go
down the wrong path, living in sin, or seeing them act out in ways we are both
morally and socially opposed. Life
simply brings all sorts of experiences or trials that could steal our joy, if
we allowed it to. What if we had a financial setback or crisis? Worry,
anxiety, fretting, frustration, envy, jealously, and yes, even pride are all
trials we would suffer that would steal our joy. Trials, not in a physical sense,
but trials in our hearts. No matter what may happen in life, our inheritance is
kept in heaven for us and we should always be in an attitude of rejoicing because
we know our Lord has it all under control. However, we also see that these
trials come for a specific purpose. They are specifically to do with our faith,
how much we believe in Jesus. This faith, this trust in Jesus is worth more the
gold, which perishes even though it is refined by fire. That is even this 24
carat, pure gold, the finest gold ever refined, will someday perish as all
material things will, but our inheritance is kept safe for us in heaven. When
we allow these things of the world, these trials to steal our joy, then what
kind of faith do we have? Are we looking at trusting in things, or in people
instead of trusting Jesus? When we have to go through some trial, some
temptation to feel disappointed, or to grieve over a situation or some loved
one, and we lose that joyful heart, what has happened to our faith? Have we
failed, is our faith not genuine? Has it not been proved to be genuine faith?
Has our faith not resulted in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus is revealed?
Does that revealing refer only to the time of his return? Is that the only time
we should be concerned about proving our faith? We think not? Every time we
face some trial and we look to Jesus, instead of the trial, he reveals himself
to us. The reason he reveals himself to us is that we are looking to him,
trusting in him, having faith that is more precious than gold, and then when we
see his working in our lives through those difficult times, we rejoice, we give
him praise and honor and glorify his name. We remember the lesson we learned
way before we believed. As a youth having to be involved in some sport, being
an officer in ROTC, I was tall enough, thin enough the track coach wanted me to
run hurdles. As I practiced and practiced the sixth hurdle always seemed to
trip me up. He finally figured it out, I was looking at the hurdles instead of
the finish line. Once I kept my focus on the finish line, the hurdles seemed to
fade away. It was simply a rhythm of steps and stretches to the finish line. A
life lesson from Jesus, even before I knew him. Now, we can rejoice in the rhythm
of life, because we are focused on the finish line. We rejoice because we
believe and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy for we are receiving
the goal of our faith, the salvation of our soul.
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