Trust and stand

We've been talking about putting things in perspective.....often we are guilty of looking at things incorrectly in our lives. Like a child who draws a house, and then draws the people the same size, we will sometimes make things more or less important in our thoughts.... it is sometimes because we are stressed about things, so we "blow them up" in proportion to other things.

Once we put our trials in perspective, and we put God's grace and strength in perspective, too, then we can consider another factor in trials.....

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.13 She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. 14 Greet one another with a kiss of love.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ. (I Peter 5:10-14)

God called us, and has a purpose for our lives. Putting this in perspective, Peter says that God called us "to His eternal glory in Christ."
We didn't come to Him by our own goodness.
We, who are believers, were called by Him:

And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:6)

We were called; we didn't come to Him by our own strength.

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (John 10:3)

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (I Timothy 6:12)

We will dwell in His presence throughout eternity! In our trials, we must trust and stand, looking ahead to what God has promised for those He has called....He will bring us through.

We also need to put His purpose for our trials into perspective. Peter says that God will "perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish" us. We've talked before about how God can use things in our lives to burn away the "dross" and refine the "gold."  Here in this verse, Peter uses the word "to perfect," and that means to equip, repair, or complete. The same word was used when Peter was mending his nets:

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. (Matthew 4:21-22)

The word Peter uses that is translated "confirm" means to fix, set fast, or strengthen. Jesus told Peter that after he was restored (after his denial of Christ) he would strengthen his brothers in the faith.
The scholars are not sure how the second use of strengthen is different, but we all know what he means by establish, right?  It means to lay a firm and secure foundation, like when Jesus used that word in the parable of building a house on sand or on rock:

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. (Matthew 7:25)

We can trust Him and stand firm.... He will use our trials to establish us in our faith, and also to equip us to serve others in His cause.
More on this tomorrow.....