Today I was reading in 1 Peter.  Honestly I have found myself in this book many times over the past few months.  There is just something about the words in the chapter 1 that I keep going back to, something that keeps drawing me back.  It’s almost like I know there is something more I need to learn or understand here I just can’t quite get a handle on it.

1 Peter 1: 3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Re-read those words in verses four and five, and really let those words sink in.  Do you know what that means to us as believers in Jesus?  We have an imperishable inheritance, one that is undefiled and unfading.  The New Living Translation uses the words, pure, priceless and beyond the reach of change or decay.  And this inheritance is secure, “kept in heaven for you”.  In this world of change, uncertainty, and decay of all kinds why am I not jumping up and down for joy over this promise?  Why am I not screaming it from the rooftop and telling everyone I know, there is a another way, a better way?  Why am I living as though this body and this world are my permanent homes?

For me, the answer is pretty simple- I love this world and the things in it far too much.  I am afraid of the unknown.  We can hope, dream, and wonder what eternity will be like, but bottom line we do not know. And at least for today, we are still in this world. I think I know this world that we live in.  I think I have figured out how to navigate my way through it.  In many ways it is known, since it is where we are.  But if I take God’s words as truth, I must accept and confront that fact that He is telling me that eternity is better.  All of the words we read earlier; pure, imperishable, unchanging and without decay. Those words sound pretty good to me.  I cannot help but think of what Paul wrote in Philippians 1:21 “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  I want that kind of faith!  But how do I get there?

The answer to that question is a hard one. But I wonder if Peter doesn’t give us a hint in the next few verses?  1 Peter 1:6-8 says “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

While I desperately want my faith to grow, I do not want to be “grieved by various trials”.  I just want God to point at me and say “Her, that middle aged women over there, give her a ton of faith”.  Sadly God doesn’t work that way.  And if I am really honest, as I look back over my life, the times I have grown the most are those times when life has been just plain hard.  You see what I have found is God uses those “various trials” to teach me to depend on him and to trust him completely.  Think back to our biblical heroes, their lives were not easy.  Even Peter who wrote the passage we are looking at had his fair share of trials.  The dude denied Jesus three times, and then had to watch as he was tortured and killed!  He had to be thinking, this was not the plan Jesus!  What on earth am I supposed to do now?  All the other disciples were looking to him for answers and direction, and he is confused and grieving. Talk about a trial!  But I have to believe that Peter grew through it.  After all he did go on to become a founding father of the church and write a few books of the Bible.

For me there are a couple of take a ways from this passage.  First of all I need to admit my sin in loving this world far too much and ask for help daily in having an eternal focus.  Secondly, I need to do a much better job of living out my faith each and every day.  I need to be joyful, even in the hard times, and share my faith in words and actions.

Each of us are in different places in our walk with Jesus, so I can only tell you what I am learning.  The lesson for you might be something completely different.  Please don’t be tempted to just read my words and think “that is a good idea, I should do that too”.  If you have been touched by these words, open up God’s word and let it guide and direct you.  If you need or want to talk about any of this, reach out to me, I would love to help you in whatever way I can!  But getting God intimately involved in your life is the key.

I plan on spending some more time in 1 Peter, so don’t be surprised if I share more of what I am learning.

Thanks for taking the time to read!  To God by the Glory!