Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; 16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? 19 Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.
Why we would be surprised when we are suffering? Because, we wish not to suffer and we know sufferings are painful, unpleasant experience. We do pray to the Lord: Lord let me, my family or friends not to suffer. But, we or our friends do suffer. We wonder or surprised why God permit suffering. We got confused. Why bad things happen to good people. Today, I want to tell you a Chinese story: The Story of 赛翁失马 A blessing in disguise. Peter tells us in advance we should not be surprised when persecution or trial comes if we are doing things according to God's will and for the name of Christ.
Trials are inevitable for Christian as we are strangers in this world (1 peter 1: 1).“All who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” 2 Timothy 3:12. In John 15: 18-20. Persecution and trials will come at some point if you are true believers of Christ as true believer hates what is evil and love what is good. The world promotes evil as you could see from TV, Movie, and Internet. Bad things become popular and highly promoted.
If we are still doing what is right according to God's word, we are going to suffer verbal attack at least from the world.
We tend to comfortably believe God when all things go well, but when tragedy strikes; we can quickly doubt His very existence. Where is God? Why these things happened? Why bad things happened to good people? God has His sovereign purpose on what we are suffering. He wants us to grow up, to be mature by knowing His very existence, and by experiencing His love, His tenderness, His care through the trials which is due to the evilness of the world. To build us up, more like Christ and mature in Spirit but not an infant, to refine us as 1 peter 1: 6-7. God is not finished with us. We are still His workmanship. He is creating in us “righteousness and true holiness”—His character. Ephesians’ 4: 22-24. God has promise that “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” 1 Corinthian 10:13. Job is a good example, if you think suffering and trial think about Job. Read Job. You will find not only how faithful he is, but also how lovely is our God.
If the young birds are to survive, they must step away from the nest. Frequently, this means a few hard falls to the ground followed a long trip back to the safety of the nest. Pain, agony and complaining, discouraging, Mum, why you let me to fallen down and I want to stay in my warm and cosy nest, and to receive the food from you. If the Mum bird does so, one day the young bird will die because her spoil and will be easily become prey of its predators. But after all, the young bird will rejoice until the time it can fly freely in the sky, see the beauty of God' creation. I hope they do see the beauty and smile. Do you want only Fish or skill to fish? We are prey of Satan, but we are also in God's hand. But we do, we will rejoice after grief and trial, Satan will be defeated as Job experienced and Jesus triumphed over death and sin. An illustration is given by Jesus in John 16:19-24. Trial (pain) and glory comes together.
