We continue to walk through the small book of 1 Peter learning from one of the most intimate of Jesus’ friends. Peter observed how Jesus lived. He listened over and over to Jesus’ teaching, and he watched up close as Jesus suffered many sufferings.
These sufferings tend to come upon us like a storm, as a bitter disappointment, a crushing defeat, or a betrayal at the hands of a close friend.
Yet it is in the storm that God equips us for service. When God wants to make a man He puts us into some storm. The history of manhood is always rough and rugged. No man is made until he has been out into the surge of the storm and found the sublime fulfillment of the prayer: “O God, take me, break me, make me.”
Every man who is pre-eminent for his ability was first pre-eminent for suffering.
The beauties of nature come after the storm. The rugged beauty of the mountain is born in a storm, and the heroes of life are the storm-swept and the battle scarred.
Excerpts from Streams in the Desert – January 16 (2022) by L.B. Cowman
Many years after Peter denied Jesus publicly three times, he writes to us from the deep well of suffering turned to wisdom. Peter writes, Don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you for the testing of your faith. 1 Peter 4:12
We learn the Law of Love by suffering through broken dreams and promises, experiencing the loss of dignity when slapped on the cheek, or when our spouse refuses to forgive.
Suffering in these ways, we learn how to receive suffering as Jesus did – and to extend love through it as Jesus did.
This is the suffering Peter is speaking of here in chapter 4. A message he expects us to heed.
We suffer from a divine purpose that we most often cannot see. Yet with the eyes of our heart, we can be assured the purpose is clear.
Peter, most likely, was influenced by Paul’s writing on this matter.
We have this treasure in an earthen vessel that the surpassing greatness may be of God and not ourselves; we are afflicted in many ways, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not destroyed; always carrying in our bodies the dying of Jesus, that the life love of Jesus would leak out of us. 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 paraphrase
And, so, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you for it is the way we learn to extend and receive love.
Pray
Surely there must be another way God. If that was so, Jesus would have taken it. This is very sobering Lord. Help me let go of my 5th-grade view of love, pick up my cross, and quit complaining or taking the low road to avoid or minimize pain. O God, take me, break me, make me.
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