Suffering to Soaring - Trials, moulding, shaping, tempering and the end result
Wow, after the last few months, the last few weeks, imagine my joy when I found this chapter in my Bible, which, if I understand it correctly is saying there is an end in sight...
I've been reading through 1 Peter, a really great book, if you haven't studied it, I encourage you to do so...
Having read through the first parts I came to the last chapter this week, which speaks to the shepherds and how to lead the Flock, I also find these important notes, no matter who we are, there are people who are following us, people who are looking at our lives as the love letter from God until they meet Him for themselves, and sometimes even then, they continue looking to us as examples, so these are very necessary points, 1 Peter 5:1-4.
But, if you, like myself have found yourself actually feeling empty, beaten down, trodden on by life and circumstances the last few weeks, months, probably year and a half, then this is for you, it lifted my spirit so, because when I've asked before, when will this ever end, some well-meaning people say, when we die. Which to the greater extent is true, when we die all this will stop and we won't have all these things to deal with, but now, at the moment, today, I don't have anymore of me to give... even just to this day... I'm feeling desperate, so this was a real breath of fresh air for me, thank You Lord!
Then, Peter, goes on (from Shepherding the Flock) to say Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you... great, we've heard this before, but here in these verses he discusses the how 1 Peter 5:5-11
Starts with submitting to our elders... oooh... some people don't like that one... the elders do this, the elders did this, the Bible doesn't say only submit to perfect elders... it simply says submit to your elders...
Now, if you elders are doing something extra Biblical, sure, then it's time to move on, you're not going to change them, that's the Lord's job, your job is to find a Bible believing, living for real, church for you and your family. So, you have 2 choices submit to who you've got, if they're inline with the word or find someone who is and submit to them... the choice you don't have is to not submit... (you gotta love Peter, doesn't start with the easy stuff)
Then, be submissive to one another... oooh, but brother so and so did abc... tough... you have to submit... if you have faults with them, take it up with the elders, who now know your heart, because they can see you're submitted to them... so, now, submit to one another, you're not a doormat, put your boundaries up, but submit, God will show you the line, if you want to find it... ask Him... this is something I had to learn and am still learning... just keep wanting to know and the Lord will answer the questions...
this one is precious... be clothed in humility... how on earth... think about it like this... in order to get to my heart a knife would have to go through my clothing, then my body, chest cavity and then penetrate my heart... your heart protection is humility, if you listen, look and see everything through layers of humility you will be less offended, you will find less fault, you will see less attack from the people around you... how, the way to do it, as said famously:
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less,” wrote C.S. Lewis on humility in Mere Christianity.
Think about that for a while... if I think of myself less what someone else said is more likely to be heard from their perspective than my paradigm... paradigm's in my 'humble' opinion, can ruin or make the world for us... it's been said your attitude determines your altitude, I happen to think it is interpreted by your paradigm, which can be either healthy or toxic... so how do we start, let's ask God, how can I apply humility like a blanket that covers all other thoughts, emotions, desires...
WHY? For goodness sake why would I want to go to all this trouble... submit to elders, submit to others, find humility and wrap myself in it... sounds too much for me to go through... Peter's answer is simple... in due time God will exalt you:
1 Peter 5:6 "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,"
As an added benefit, just a sideline note: vs 7 "Cast your cares on Him, for He cares for you" (we all know there's nothing small about this verse, I just love the way Peter adds it as a side note, but it's become one of our stalwart verses.)
What about our trials ... we're getting there, we first have to establish how we traverse these trials:
vs 8-9 tell us how to go through our trials: Be sober; Be vigilant; Resist the devil; Be steadfast in faith - and each of these can have their own unpacking, but this article is not for that. Then verse 9 says: Knowing that the brotherhood across the world have the same sufferings as you are now going through, don't loose heart, keep your eyes on the prize is what he is saying to us...
but then... my favourite part and it can so easily be overlooked, verse 10 is the key:
1 Peter 5:10-11 "10 But [f]may the God of all grace, who called [g]us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, [h]perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
Can you see it... may the God of all grace (all grace!!) who called us (He is the reason we're enduring all of this, so He's vested in our welfare) to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus (our eyes are on eternity) after you have suffered a while (there's an after!!!),
what will He do afterwords:
Thank You Jesus that there's an after to this chapter... where You will come in and ensure you fulfill what You started
1 Perfect - He will perfect us, it's not my ideal version of perfection, thank You Lord, because only He knows the full picture, He will perfect us!
2 Establish - He will establish us, thank You Lord, according to Psalm 90:17
3 Strengthen - He will strengthen us, we need this so desperately...
4 Settle you - He will settle you, He will place you, firmly establish you and settle all that is concerned about you...
I haven't even had the time to go into the original definitions of these words, but they gave me so much encouragement, I couldn't wait to share them here! May you meditate on them and find His true deep meaning for you and even share that back, I'd love to hear what it means to you.
As always each concept has to be taken in the full understanding of Biblical truth, we can't take any one concept in and of themselves, so if you feel anything contradicts your understanding of Biblical truth, you're welcome to let me know and we can chat about it... have a blessed day!
Trials, moulding, shaping, tempering and why
I always don't know where these articles will start, then I start writing and the article comes out.
This morning I was so amazed to see how the Lord is leading me through a theme of what it looks like to suffer for the Lord and while my family and I have been through a very testing time, I never really thought we were 'suffering for the Lord", but then this morning I realised we must be.
1 Peter 4: 14-16
"14 If you are [a]reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. [b]On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a [c]busybody in other people’s matters. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this [d]matter."
So, my family and I have been ashamed at our suffering, we have been embarrassed at the thought that we can't afford this at the moment, which we haven't had before... so now, I am going to tell my family there is no shame in going through this hardship as the Lord is shaping and moulding us into His image, making us ready and able to face the next phase of our Christian growth, our Christian walk in life.
I think God has moulded and shaped us and now He wants to temper us, that is to keep this shape, once you've moulded and shaped a pottery container into what you feel it's end shape should be you temper it... that is to apply heat and allow it to keep it's shape, it won't be mouldable again... the Lord moulds and shapes us, then he adds some heat to temper that shape... only we're not dead clay, we're alive, so we're subject to go through this process a number of times in our lives...
So, how do we go about this life, knowing that at any time, God can decide, right it's about time you had a reshape, redesign, your current form will not be fit for your future purpose, let me yank you out of it and reshape and mould you into a new one...
We look to the scriptures, where the disciples themselves, went through shaping, moulding, discipline and came out to tell us in their own words:
1 - James 1:2-4
"2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [a]patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be [b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing."
2 - 1 Peter 4:12-16
"12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 14 If you are [e]reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. [f]On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a [g]busybody in other people’s matters. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this [h]matter."
Why, how could they have this mindset while under constant persecution:
1 Peter 4:1-6 "4 Therefore, since Christ suffered [a]for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For we have spent enough of our past [b]lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
Here you see the why, once we've gone through the trials we will be dead or cease to sin, we will no longer live subject to the flesh and those who don't allow themselves to go through these times will give an account for what they do... we will all give an account, so the choice is ours, we can choose to go through the suffering, become dead to sin and alive to obedience in Christ or we can continue to live in our sin, any disobedience is sin, so if I'm supposed to wake up for quiet time and I don' that could be sin for me... probably wouldn't be for you, but would for me, because I'm stubborn and been 'struggling' for too long with the decision to obey...
So, stop, let's just look back and see what the Lord is saying...
We suffer for a reason, 1 Peter 4:14 - Spirit of God rests on you
We don't have to be ashamed, 1 Peter 4:16 - Glorify God in suffering to remove shame
We are being moulded into our usage for our next phase, for which we need to be a different form and stronger
Once the moulding has happened there may also be a tempering, which can prove to be as painful as the moulding itself.
It's necessary to keep us from sinning going forward and to keep us humble and obedient to Christ at all times
Heart alignment
Lord, this morning as I sat down to my quiet time I felt You remind me to read 1 Peter. I so enjoyed it and read chapter 2 today.
It starts off setting our mindsets straight and I really had to pray and repent for allowing every thought and emotion and desire to literally fall out of my mouth. In some way I felt justified, that if that's how I feel, then it must be valid...uhoh... I couldn't be more wrong, I had to repent and will have to daily, as it says:
1 Peter 2:1-2 "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." So, if I want to grow up in my salvation... I have to tend to these... ouch...
In reading, I realised the juxtaposition; we are a "royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that we may proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We weren't a people, but You made us a people; we hadn't obtained mercy, but You have freely given us Your mercy... "
Therefore we have to abstain from all earthly lusts, we have to be obedient to all earthly masters bringing good repute to You and Your Kingdom as a result of our salvation.
ALSO, so that by doing so we would establish, gain and maintain our dominion:
1 Peter 2:15-17 "For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor."
Doesn't this show a building up of us as believers, listen, when we do good - we establish a good reputation among non-believers ("silence the ignorant talk of foolish people); we create and establish dominion ("Live as free people") yet not abuse our liberty by holding ourselves accountable to God ("live as God's slaves) this reminds me of Israel asking God for a king when He was their perfect King who brought awesome freedom, but they wanted men who would enslave them... think about where we are doing this, this is a deep one, ask God to show you, where have I rejected You and Your word and taken man's beliefs and opinions and ensnared, trapped, enslaved myself... ooohhh
I believe that when we have checked our heart motives as per the above, the rest will fall in line, it's like righteousness, it's about alignment. We will out of the overflow of our hearts:
- Show proper respect to everyone
- Love the family of believers
- Fear God
- Honour the emperor - I guess this embodies everything about our governing agencies that we probably loath, but we have to honour them.
This to me is the scary part of this verse,
1 Pet 2:7-8
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who [b]are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
Peter doesn't say, "to those who don't believe, Jesus is a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense,". He does say, "to those who are disobedient,"
This to me is the crux of the matter, people often say the devil also believes in God, that's true, the only fact he can't deny because he's the father of lies, but I digress... the point is, if the devil believes in God, then it can't be anyone who believes is going to heaven, there must be further criteria, what must we do to be saved... let's take Peter up again in Acts where the people, so deeply convicted by the preach he just gave, said "what must we do to be saved?"
Acts 2:38 "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the [a]remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Thereby, receiving the Holy Spirit we are enabled to live a life of obedience, where the Lord will come back and look for those who have been living by faith in the Holy Spirit and bring about our final Salvation, at that time, until then, we must remain obedient so that the Lord and His ways will not become:
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
Oh, God, help me first, to be obedient, that I may never miss what You call me to, forgive me, Father, where I have and help me I ask You to lead me in Your paths of righteousness for Your name's sake, that I may honour and obey You at all times and come into full submission of my mind, thoughts, will, emotions and my desires to say and do pure things that would cause others to Honour You, in Jesus' mighty wonderful name, Amen
A season to completion
I remember once asking a nephew of mine, who I'd heard was an excellent artist, when he was starting out his drawing, "what are you making today?" His answer confounded me, he said, "I, don't know yet..." his voice drifting off in contemplation...
I was confounded, I was confused, I mused over this answer so many times that that young 10 year old boy is now a young man with a baby of his own, and yet, I'm still musing over that statement and interaction, "I ... don't know yet..."
How many times in your life do you start out with something and you think, where is this going... "I... don't know yet..."
It dawned on me this week, probably later than everyone else in the world I realise that, but, I have to voice it anyway, that, when you start a project you should work at it full steam, whether you know where it will be tomorrow or not. I tend to give half my heart to this in case tomorrow needs me somewhere else, I don't think I've been burnt by it, but I do think there are many things, many areas, where, if I'd given my all from the start I'd be in a totally different situation by now.
Even in some instances where I'm waiting for someone else to give the go ahead or make the final decision, if I'd been more like James who said the double-minded get nothing, I'd have made the decision and have to live with the consequences, but at least I'd have many more things done well, with finality, and been able to say this job was done by us, and not my intention here is abc... where the Lord wants us to bring things into alignment and completion.
I strongly feel this is a season of completion, this is a season where we're all coming to a place of seeing a season of hard work starting to bear fruit, pay off from the long haul. I pray, Lord, that You would bring a season of struggling, doubt and even drought (where it seemed like nothing would ever be enough) please God, bring it to an end and all we've been hard labouring over, please bring it to full, good, pleasing to You, final end.
Thank You Lord for Your faithfulness to carry us to the completion of Your plans, we love You so much!
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