Saturday 28th December
Read 1 Peter 1:6-7
“In all 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 the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (NIVUK)
The letters written at the beginning of the gospel’s journey throughout the earth are filled with this incongruous observation. Rejoicing and suffering. Many believers today, particularly in the West, only think that the first of those is true. Rejoicing is to be the daily, even hourly, experience of the believer. Suffering is a sign that God’s favour does not rest on you. If the early church harboured those views, and there is some evidence that many did, then the letters the apostles penned to them would have dissuaded them of this misconception. They argued suffering built faith. And that faith overflows in rejoicing and ultimately honours our Lord. Do you believe them?
