WHY?

By Sean Fryer

“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”—1 Peter 5:10

Why did my parents get divorced? Why did my Mom get breast cancer and melanoma back to back? Why was my little brother born with a kidney issue? Why did my dad struggle to pay for my $1 school lunches every day? Why_____________ ? Fill in the blank with your own why? It’s natural to ask those questions when we suffer. Yesterday, we read about Joseph’s palace moment, but I hope you understand that your trials aren’t just preparing you for a palace experience. They are preparing you for something far greater: “eternal glory.”

Notice though, that eternal glory comes “after you have suffered a while.” And look at what happens next! God does four incredible things. Let’s look at what this means for us.

Perfect: This means that God will bring to completion; He’ll finish what He started.  “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). It takes a lot to perfect something, though. I think of a carpenter building something. The wood he works with gets beat up, holes drilled, sandpapered, sawed off, etc.  In the end, though, the carpenter creates his masterpiece. “For we are God’s masterpiece” (Ephesians 2:10).

Establish: Our trials help to establish us, to help us remain steadfast in the faith and resist the attacks of the devil. When we go through trials, we can either run from God or run to Him.  James 4:8 tells us, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” When we run to Him, He draws even closer to us!

Strengthen: This is pretty self-explanatory, but picture your trials like lifting weights. When you lift weights, you’re literally breaking down your muscle fibers just for them to fuse back together to be bigger and stronger than before. Trials are the weightlifting of life! Michael Jordan once said, “I’m not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feels like to sweat.” You’re not just suffering to see what it’s like to suffer; you’re getting stronger, God is building you up and doing something amazing in you. 

Settle: Ephesians 2:19-20 says, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” A lot of people look forward to retiring one day, to settling down and taking it easy. But to do that, you have to build up a retirement fund. As Christians, we get to settle on the chief cornerstone Jesus Christ! We settle on victory! The gates of hell will not prevail against us.