Temporary Hardship And Kingdom Hope

Photo by William Moreland on Unsplash

Do you see your hardships and trials as a permanent state? Do you see God’s eternal purposes and plan in the pressures of life? Are you in tune to the eternal hope that you have?

Trials and hardships are temporary and are producing a tested and genuine faith in us. We are troubled and grieved in the face of our trials, as we should be; however, our trials and hardships are not wasted in God’s economy. God is producing good, even in our grief. Our trials and hardships are very real, but in the scope of eternity they are also brief.

Our trials and hardships are purifying our faith and making our faith genuine and refined. God is preparing us and shaping us more and more into the image of his Son Jesus—our suffering servant (see Isaiah 53).

Peter instructs us and encourages us with this kingdom hope in our hardship saying, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 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.” (1 Peter 1:6-7, ESV).

God is glorified in our faithfulness in the face of our trials and hardships. We are called to suffer with Jesus as his followers.

Paul said this as well in his letter to the church in Rome when he wrote that if we are children of God, we are also heirs—“heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:17, ESV).

Peter wants us to know that suffering in trials and hardships is part of living for Jesus, and is part of living like Jesus, which is why he writes this letter, which is basically a commentary on Isaiah 53–the suffering servant chapter, which points to Jesus’ suffering on our behalf.

Jesus himself instructed his disciples in John’s Gospel, saying, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.” (John 15:18-21, ESV).

When we suffer trials and hardships in the face of living out our faith in this fallen world, we should not be surprised when we encounter troubles, difficulties, and resistance.

If it seems that we are strangers or foreigners in this life, it is because we are. If we feel like we do not belong, it is because we do not belong to this world. We are citizens of another kingdom—the kingdom of God.

This is what Jesus was saying to his disciples, and it was what Peter meant when he wrote later in his letter, saying, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2: 11, ESV). And “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” (1 Peter 4:12, ESV).

Trials and hardships are a part of faithfully living out our relationship with Jesus—according to the Word of God and according to the design of God in this fallen and broken world, and on this side of eternity—before God brings about the fullness of his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

We must not loose kingdom hope in the face of hardship. Our fiery trials and hardships are purifying our faith like precious gold and are producing “glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:7, ESV).

May we be encouraged by the work of God in the face of our temporary trials, hardships, and adversity—knowing that there is kingdom hope as Jesus works out his perfect will in the purifying fires of our sufferings.

In Christ alone, Robbie

A Prayer For The Peace Of The World: “Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed: Kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all people the true love of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility your kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (#28, Book of Common Prayer, 2019).

Photo by William Moreland on Unsplash