Strength for the Suffering
Dr. Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor
1 Peter 5:6-14 | August 17, 2025 - Sunday Evening,
Let’s continue in the spirit of prayer as we approach God’s Word.
Father in heaven, we reflect on these words we have just sung and we offer them again to you as a prayer, asking that we might rely on you for you are the almighty one, and that in you our souls would take courage, that our souls would wait, that your truth might sustain us, especially when we are faint, when we feel desolate, alone. O Lord may your might be our strength. May your love be our joy. We pray that your mercy would be upon us all of our days that you would give us peace. Help us now that we may find these things not in the mists or in the clouds, but in the firmness of your Word, and give us ears to hear. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
1 Peter chapter 5, coming to the end of Peter’s letter we read in verses 6 through verse 14 the end of the book. Follow along as I read 1 Peter chapter 5 beginning at verse 6.
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
12 By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. 13 She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. 14 Greet one another with the kiss of love.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
As I said this morning it’s tempting when we come to the end of one of these letters to think that we just have an assortment, a hodgepodge of material and exhortations to wrap up this letter. All the big doctrinal points are out there, all of the meaty stuff has been communicated, all the soaring passages have been read. When you think of almost any of these apostles and you think about the high mountain point that’s usually not and that last paragraph where he mentions the people and gives the greetings and tells you to kiss each other, that’s the part that I’m looking for. It’s easy to sort of trail off when we come to these last sections and think of it as less than we should, as a kind of tidying up, as if your mom were writing you a letter in college, doubt that very many letters get put into the mail, but it’s still, it’s extra special isn’t it when you get something. It’s not an ad, its not a solicitation, it’s not a bill, it’s not junk, someone wrote you a letter so whether you write a letter or it’s an email, I know, no one under the age of 25 or let’s kid ourselves, 35, maybe 45 checks emails, so it’s most likely to be, as I do with my kids, a text. I try to use correct punctuation; I use capital letters. My kids say, dad you seem so angry, why are you always using periods and commas, and well, if you’re gonna write well practice writing well all the time. But it’s as if mom were writing a letter and got to the end and said finally remember to go to bed on time, take your allergy medicine, make sure to drink enough water. When you do your laundry separate the whites and the colors and please, please do your laundry. Your brothers and sisters say hello. If you run into your cousin at school be nice and give him a hug. Love, Mom.
That’s how we’re apt to read the end of one of these letters. Here’s a few tidying up, just a bit of wisdom, some aphorisms, a few hellos and off we go. But there’s much more to it than that here at the end of 1 Peter. There are important exhortations and some of scriptures simplest and sweetest promises. As we’ve heard many times throughout the summer, this is a book about suffering. You can see the heading in chapter 3 before verse 8, Suffering for Righteousness Sake. You can see the heading in chapter 4 before verse 12, Suffering as a Christian. What I want you to recall in particular, turn there, is chapter 1:6. Chapter 1:6, “In this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.”
Yes, this book is about persecution and that can be hard for us to fathom, and we have an expansive view of insults or people speaking ill of you and there’s biblical warrant for that. That’s how Jesus in the Sermon on the Mound talked about persecution. It can be a broad category of people reviling you, but even that can be hard for us to sometimes wrap our heads around or think is really our lot in life and so we’re apt sometimes when we have these sections on suffering and tied to persecution to think, well that’s really for maybe a few of us in the room and maybe I’ll need this someday, I hope not, but we hear suffering. I wonder even what you thought when you saw the tittle. You may not pay much attention to it. Strength for the Suffering. You think, yeah, oh that’s good, that’s good. And maybe, maybe you’re here tonight and you already know, yes, I am in that category, I am suffering, I am struggling, this has been a hard season, there is great trial and loss in my life. But a lot of the rest of us probably think, well that’s nice, there are a lot of sufferers. I don’t know if I’m in that category right now. We tend to reserve it for cancer, death, overt persecution. That’s why I want you to notice in chapter 1:6, “Though you have now for a little while been grieved by various trials.” Well surely that covers about everyone in this room. Have you had over these summer months anything you could classify as trials? Probably, a variety of trails, not just the biggies. The health concerns. Maybe you have plantar fasciitis. That’s the one running injury I’ve never had amazingly. Everything else. I hear it’s very painful. Maybe you think, well marriage, I know there’s marriages falling apart, that’s not really ours, but boy we just keep fighting over the same things. We fight over the allotment of the chores, or we fight over decisions with the kids or we can’t seem to see eye to eye about the in-laws, maybe your kids, maybe it’s as simple as potty training, it’s just been a nightmare. Maybe a child was cut from a team or isn’t going to get a part in a play and that’s gonna be painful, or maybe there’s a rash you can’t quite figure out, or they have to have braces and they don’t like it or they have bad eyes and they need glasses, maybe it’s your job and it’s not that you’re unemployed, you have a boss who’s a pain or you’ve been asked to do something and it doesn’t seem quite right, or you just are feeling like the commute is too long. There are all sorts of trials, relationships, finances, facing something in your life new and scary or also a trial is facing something that feels old and boring or maybe you are grieving the loss of a loved one and long past the time when people have been giving you cards and sending flowers and remembering anniversaries. It was five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and that wound still feels raw and you say, yes, I have experienced trials of many kinds. Isn’t that everybody in this room? Now maybe you are the type of person who complains about everything. There are those sorts of people, I live up to that sometimes, so I try to have that sanctified. We want to be as we heard over the summer, grace detectors not looking for opportunities to grumble. Maybe you’re the sort of person who doesn’t outwardly complain, but you figure you just gut through life kind of your shoulders are slooped, your head is hanging low, you feel borderline miserable all the time, but you think, I’m not really in the category of a full on sufferer. You’ve always assumed that the suffering sermon, that’s for Jobe-like suffering, and your problems seem small, ordinary, garden variety, and you almost feel like though you know this isn’t the right theology you almost feel like, I really shouldn’t bother God with these problems. There are many bigger problems, and He has probably got a lot of other things going on and you are missing out, and I’m missing out on grace that God means to give to us as you experience trials of many kinds. So, this sermon is not just for Jobe-like suffering, it is for anyone who has been or is now in the category grieved by various trials, and that must be almost all of us. Here’s what I want you to see. Four exhortations and three promises. Some of them we can deal with quickly, some will linger a bit more.
Here’s the first exhortation. Humble yourselves. You see that in verse 6, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.” Now this might take us aback. Here’s a whole book that a major theme is about suffering and if you are getting to the end of your counseling session with someone who is suffering, you would probably think, eww that sounds a little insensitive and in conclusion as you have been suffering and you face many trials, I want to remind you to humble yourself. But let’s make sure we hear God’s Word in the right way. This is not a finger in the chest, tsk, tsk, that we tell people, suffer, now you better be humble, you better just deal with it. It can feel to us like that’s the last thing someone needs to hear. This is not, however, about putting the sufferer in his place. Remember what we saw at the conclusion of this morning in verse 5, “God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” So verse 6 is obviously connected with verse 5. When Peter says to the sufferer, “When God reminds you I want you to humble yourselves.” He’s not trying to shame you, he’s not trying to put you in your place, he is trying to put you in the way of blessing because blessing comes to those who are humble. And look at, this is a particular kind of humility.
This morning we saw the humility toward one another. Now this is a humility before God. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” It is a humility that comes to the Christian by God’s grace that you would be humble enough to accept God’s providence in your life and that’s hard when the providences involve trials. But think about it, what would you call it if you think you know better than the God of the universe how to run your life. Might you call that a species of pride? That sounds harsh and we’re sort of trained in just the air we breathe, a kind of rogerian therapy that just does active listening and just sort of pulls out of people what is already there and there’s certainly some good skills to learn and asking lots of good questions, but we also have a place to give biblical exhortation and this is one of them. To humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand. Lest we think well God is just, he’s lost the plot, this thing has spun out of control. He doesn’t know what He’s doing. That is a species of pride, whereas humility, the kind of humility that God blesses, stands before God, especially in the midst of trials and says, “God I bow before you and you know better than I do what I need and what you’re doing.” And you see the promise there that He may exalt you. Maybe not right now, maybe not in the timing that you and I would like, but at the proper time. There’s a good word for us. The proper time. Now when is that, that’s in God’s timing. You may want, okay God I’ll take humility on Monday, exaltation on Tuesday. Here we come. It doesn’t usually work like that, but at the proper time, if you would trust Him, there’s blessing. How many times do parents tell their children, especially when they’re young, trust me, I know where I’m taking you. You need to take this medicine, it’s going to hurt, but it will be good for you. Yes, the shots will help you, these rules are for your good. I promise I won’t forget you.
Now we actually have twice in the last year forgotten a child at home and driven somewhere else, but God, God will not forget you. Put your hand in mine as we cross the road. That’s what humility is. You can see it in a child. That’s the humility and faith like a child. Not the immaturity of a child, but the trust of a child. Where’s the safest place in crossing a busy road if it’s not holding the hand of mommy or daddy. Where’s the danger, the pride that rips out of that hand says, I know what I’m doing, I know where I’m going, I’ll get across this intersection just fine thank you very much. Every loving parent reaches down and says, if you would but hold my hand, if you would trust your mom and your dad, it’s going to go better for you in the end and there’s such wonderful practical advice here in verse 7. And yes, we’re spending a longer time on this first one because it’s so rich. You see verse 7, “Casting all your anxieties upon Him.” Grammarians call this an instrumental participle. In other words, verse 7 is telling us how we humble ourselves. What does it look like to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. This is really important. Lest you think, well, humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, I guess it’s just passive acquiescence. I just stand here and I’m humble and I guess God you do what you want. Or we think that the truly humble Christian who trusts God never feels, what’s the word here, anxieties?
If I were a godlier Christian, I would never have a worry. If I were a godlier Christian, I would never have a fear, I would never feel a burden, I would never wonder what tomorrow is going to bring. No, the Bible is more realistic than that. Here’s how you humble yourself. Not that you never have an anxious thought, but that you cast all your anxieties upon Him. It’s an action that we take as an expression of humility. We can do it through prayer, tell God I lift this up before you. We can do it through an attitude adjustment. Instead of carrying around this worry, this difficulty, this anxiety, don’t you love that strong active word there, casting. Stop clutching it, take it, pitch it off, throw it to God, cast your anxiety upon Him and to meditate on this verse 7, you could spend a profitable quiet time this week just on verse 7 because there is some wonderfully inciteful biblical psychology here. You might say, well but doesn’t Jesus say, don’t worry. And doesn’t Paul say, I have learned the secret, I’m not to be content in all circumstances, but Paul also says elsewhere in 2 Corinthians recounting all of his trials, his shipwrecks, his stonings and then he says, “And above all this, I have my anxieties for the churches.” You know what way down Paul even more than physical pain, relational burdens, relational anxiety, you say, now wait a minute Paul, I thought you were the guy who learned a secret and everything, you were always content, you never had an anxious thought, and there he is saying, “Yes I have had anxieties for these people that I love.”
Calvin puts this well. He says about verse 7, God does not wish us, or we might say expect us, “To be void of all feeling.” That’s what Calvin says. Becomes sometimes Christians think, some of you have been down this spiral before. You’re worrying, and then you worry about your worry, then you worry about how much you’re worrying about your worry and you say, okay I’m worrying, I don’t wanna worry, and then I know that God says not to worry, and now I’m a worse person because I am worrying and now I have something else to worry about. And it just keeps going. This is how many of us think at times. You are anxious about your anxiety. So, the Bible says on the one hand, “Do not worry, which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life.” That’s what Jesus says. Is that true? Probably said this before, you know this quip, you never get to the end, there’s a dire diagnosis and the doctor comes in and it’s a very somber mood and the doctor says, well all we can do now is worry. That’s never the cure, that’s never the remedy. No, you can’t add a single hour to your life by this worry, but you have them. Peter recognizes this. It doesn’t say if you’re truly humble you never feel an anxiety. It says when you’re truly humble you cast them, you have them, and you deal with them. Listen, it is not a failure that you might ever feel fear or nervousness let alone sadness, or dis-ease about the future, the question is what are going to do with that, because that’s when it can become sinful. Heard this analogy one time, it’s like standing in the ocean. Some of you have done this over the summer and we went for a few days, and I love being in the water. My dear wife is quite sure there are millions of sharks. We actually did see some little baby sharks last year so that didn’t help with the, there are sharks here in North Carolina. But one of the things I love and some of you love is the waves and they come and the tide comes in and even some of the big waves and when you see it rolling and the white caps are coming and you know you’ve gotta brace yourself, you’ve gotta get in a little bit of a crouch, you’ve gotta lean into it as it comes and if you are prepared for it, you know when it breaks over you, and you don’t get swept under, you get swept away.
Well anxiety and worry can be a little bit like that. Sometimes you can see it. You can almost sniff it, like you can smell a storm is coming. You smell some worry is coming and it’s there and when those waves come at the ocean, you cannot stop the tide, you cannot stop a wave from coming and breaking on the shore. What you can do it is you can lean into it, you can get your posture, you can be ready to face it, that when it comes it breaks over you. And worry is a little bit like that, it’s coming, but it doesn’t have to pull you under, it doesn’t have to sweep you away. You don’t have to lay down and give up before the wave even reaches you. To cast that burden, that trial, that difficulty, that anxiety upon the Lord is an expression of humility. Of course it is, it communicates. I cannot carry this on my own and that is hard for some of us to admit. I am not strong enough. I cannot carry this by myself any longer, and so I cast this upon the Lord. And don’t miss before we move on from this verse, that precious word, this little word has been sweet to me in my life because I admit I can tell myself, I have to preach to myself, I can be that sort of person who thinks, I have little problems and God’s got a lot of, there’s a lot of wars and things going on, and I don’t want to be, even though I know that’s bad theology so this word is sweet to me, I hope it’s sweet to you that little word all, casting what kind of anxieties do you want Lord, which ones, just cancer, just death, is that it, okay, okay, it’s good to know this verse is here for me. Cast all of them.
Now yes, it’s true, if you only pray about the proverbial hangnail in your life, you’re missing how Jesus wants us to pray but do pray for the hangnails too. All your anxieties, can’t find your keys, cast it before the Lord, pray about it. You have indigestion and you’ve gotta go to an important meeting, pray about it. You can’t get your computer to work, pray about it. You can’t figure out these insurance forms, cast the anxiety on the Lord. You have a project due by midnight, even if you should have worked on it all summer, come before the Lord. You have nervousness about a big game or a tryout, cast all, all, all, all your trials, nothing too small, nothing too petty, nothing is a bother to a heavenly father who loves you. Bring all your anxieties. It’s not hubris, it’s pride not to bring them. It’s humility to say, God you have something to do with every bit of my life and I bring it before you. I told you that would be the long one.
Here’s the second exhortation. Be sober-minded and watchful. See those two together in verse 8. Get your head screwed on straight, keep your eyes open. Remember here the context is suffering, these Christians are facing trials and when we face trials, we think we can become too narrow. We think about, I’ve gotta get through the trial, and what does that mean, I’ve gotta feel better, I’ve gotta get better, I’ve gotta deal with the fear, the pain, the sadness, the worry, and you get some tunnel vision. We often don’t think about the spiritual warfare that we’re under in the midst of trials. Be sober-minded, be watchful, why, because your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Do you know that when you have trials that’s what’s going to happen. Many of you heard Tim Keller, who is now with the Lord, suffering from cancer, he remarked often that the most important battle in his life was not fighting cancer, but remained fighting sin. When you are suffering you are poised for either a tremendous spiritual victory that will redound to the glory of God and will make people standup and take notice, or you are poised for a great spiritual defeat. In our context, especially in the western world, half of spiritual warfare is simply remembering that there’s a devil and he doesn’t like you or Jesus. That’s about half of it to remember. There’s a real devil. Notice here these three things about him. One, he’s an adversary. The devil is never ever, ever on your side. Two, he’s a roaring lion. What does a roaring lion want to do? He wants to frighten you, he wants to intimidate you. Went to the zoo this summer when we were in Colorado and I think the lions, they’re always sleeping when you’re at the zoo, but once in a while you’re at the zoo and they come up and we had this once years ago with one of our kids, I forget if it was a lion or a tiger, but they’re there and that is a frightening thing, even when there’s that thick glass, it never seems thick enough when they actually come up against the glass and let out a roar. It’s frightening. That’s what the devil wants to do, he wants to intimidate you. And then it says, he’s seeking someone to devour. The devil’s goal is to eat your faith for breakfast and sadly I bet every one of us, at least the adults, we’ve seen this happen. You don’t think that the devil has his claw marks in countless deconstruction stories? When you hear these and people post them online, the deconstruction stories, so often those origin stories of deconstruction, I mean people leaving their faith behind. They start with suffering, a pain, an internal wrestling or an offense or sometimes very tragically real abuse. And a person then, as they tell the story and reflect on it years later will say this took them down a path to reconsider everything they had known. And it doesn’t happen all at once; it happens over months and years and the devil is very shrewd. The devil does not often do a frontal assault on Jesus himself. I think he knows that Jesus is too magnetic, too attractive, too undeniably good and glorious that he doesn’t often try to convince people, you know what, you don’t need Jesus anymore, no that’s a hard sell. You know what he will do, he will convince you that you’re just leaving behind the church or you’re just leaving behind the Bible, or you’re just leaving behind an ism, or you’re just leaving behind someone’s interpretation, or you’re just leaving behind religion, or some version of Christianity. He won’t tell you that you’re leaving Jesus. Most of the times that’s what has happened, a person has left behind Jesus as he has presented in the scriptures, Jesus He has been worshipped for 2000 years and so often that starts in suffering. Know that when you are facing trials the devil is walking around looking to pounce and devour, because he knows that there’s a moment now where he might be able to convince you of something that he couldn’t before.
We see the third exhortation follows on the heels of the second one. Resist the devil, verse 9. Now I don’t wanna read too much into the lion imagery. Peter’s not trying to give us a detailed animal metaphor or fable, but I think it’s significant that the devil is described as a roaring lion who makes a lot of noise, he’s described as a lion seeking someone to devour, so he’s going to growl and he’s going to prowl. You can’t stop that, you can’t stop that the lion has a roar. You can’t stop that the devil will prowl around, but he does not have to eat you up. Tricia and I have been reading over the past few months C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy. I can’t remember if I did read that one as a kid or not, I know I read Chronicles of Narnia several times so if I did read it I’ve forgotten it all so it’s all brand new. In the second book, I won’t spoil it if you’re working your way through, but this one is set on Venus, it’s called Perelandra, and it won’t spoil the book to tell you that the hero of the book, Ransom, is sent there by God to prevent a second fall. And so the story, it’s very philosophical, it’s very theological and a lot of it is this interplay between the Eve-like character who is innocent and pure and beautiful and the man who is inhabited by a demonic presence and his temptation and then Ransom, who realizes and hence his name Ransom, who is sent there to prevent the second fall. I won’t tell you what happens, but there’s an amazingly insightful description that Lewis gives of Ransom when he finally gets up the courage and he realizes that he’s going to have to literally and physically wrestle with the devil. Now ours is not physical in that same way, but Lewis is painting a picture, this man who is inhabited by the devil, and Ransom is so sure that he will die, but he knows this is the right thing to do and I will probably die because he is brilliant, he has super human strength, but he will do it anyways and lo and behold to his great surprise, when he finally gets into the scrap and they’re exchanging blows and punches, he realizes that he might just win against all of his fears and his unbelief, he realizes the devil is not invincible, he can be defeated. I don’t know if Lewis had this picture here, but it fits perfectly, resist him, he’s not all powerful, he’s not all knowing. And one of the ways following Peter’s logic to resist the devil is to realize that you’re not alone. Resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. This is important, one of the things that makes suffering even worse is, one, if you feel you’re all alone and two, if you feel like it’s absolutely purposeless. But here, Peter’s reminding us, you don’t have it worse than everyone else, other people in the world are suffering. You’re not the only one going through these trials and you are part of a worldwide family. Now it’s not to say that everyone has the same suffering or everyone suffers objectively, some people have harder lives than other people and are given more bitter providences, but it says here, the same kinds of suffering, not identical, but the same kinds of suffering. So here’s encouragement Christian, here’s inspiration to find camaraderie because suffering is made much worse when it feels random, when it feels pointless, and this verse puts your suffering in a global context. Your sleepless nights, which drag on and feel to be just, you don’t even know why they’re happening, your sleepless nights as a Christian are a part of the biggest story in the world that God is writing and all around the world this brotherhood, this family, brothers and sisters are suffering. You’re not alone, you’re not the only one.
Exhortation number four comes at the end. Verse 12, this could really be the summary for the whole book. “Stand firm”, he says, “I’ve written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.” I think he’s referring to his whole letter, “This is the way”, to coin a phrase, “This is the way, now walk in it. I have shown you what the way of grace looks like, now stand firm.” Reminded me that this is a good tag line we have. There’s other good ones out there, Christ Covenant Church you see on the bulletin, “Standing on truth, walking in grace.” Those are good biblical ideas that we see it right here, put together, “This is true grace, stand firm in it.” He’s talking about everything he has laid out before these Christians, “I’ve laid out for you truth and grace, now plant your feet and don’t move.” He references in verse 13, “She shoulder is at Babylon”, this doesn’t mean the literal Babylon, but refers to the system of the world, perhaps here to Rome. So, two realities, you’re in Babylon, but you’re chosen. You’re in the world; you’re not of the world. It’s a great way to describe the Christian life. This book is about how to live as a true Israelite when you are in exile in Babylon. In the summary of all that Peter has said, here I’ll give it to you in two words, “Stand firm.” Our world likes to talk about always going on a journey, there’s some good ways to conceive of a journey, there’s a good way to go on a quest, to be seeking, but you must find when it comes to God’s truth and grace, He doesn’t want wanderers, He wants us to be fixed, firmly planted, standing. He then gives scattered throughout three promises and we’ll deal with these quickly.
Three promises. Those are the four exhortations, here are three promises. Number one, go back up to verse 7. I skipped over it when we meditated on verse 7. I wanted to save this, such a sweet promise. Here’s a promise for you, “God cares for you”, because maybe you thought up in previous verse 6, “Humble yourselves, under the mighty hand of God.” Okay I get it, God’s sovereign, His providence rules over all things, He’s mighty and I have to just deal with it. Okay I get it, He’s big, I’m small, He calls the shots, I don’t, I’m humble about it. But that’s not all God wants you to know. He’s not toying around with you, he’s not just playing some perverse game of cosmic cheese for His enjoyment, no He cares for you. One of the simple most precious promises in all the Bible. It’s like the end of Exodus 2, Gods people in slavery are crying out for deliverance and before anything has really happened, we’ve been introduced to Moses, but he hasn’t come to save God’s people. We read at the end of Exodus 2, “And God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, God saw the people of Israel and God knew.” He knows, He sees you, He’s not blind to your suffering, to your trials, He’s not indifferent and above all that we have this promise here at the end of verse 7, think how much a simple note from a friend means in your hour of trial. It could be a phone call, a card, an email today, it has never been easier, it has never been easier Christian to encourage people than today. You have a phone, you just send it, it takes a few seconds. It can be as short as a text that says I’m thinking of you, I’m praying for you, I’m with you, I’m your friend, I love you. Imagine pulling up your phone and somehow, I don’t know what it would look like, it wouldn’t be green, wouldn’t be blue, it would be something and you get a text from heaven, from God Himself, it’s all sparkly and golden, a text and somehow you know it’s from God you’re not even sure what to do. It’s short, it’s short, you kinda wish it was long, but it’s short and all it says is, I want you to know I care for you. Wouldn’t that make a difference in your life? It makes a difference if a mom or a dad or a friend or brother or a child or a pastor, it makes a difference when a human being says that here’s God sending a text directly to your heart that says, I want you to remember Christian I care for you.
Second promise God has called you, verse 10, He’s called you to eternal glory and like the juxtaposition after you’re suffered a little while, “The God of all grace who has called you to glory”, that’s the Christian life, it’s an amazing fact if you are a Christian your personal story began in grace, your personal story ends in glory. What could be better, you know how your story ends, you know it began in God’s electing grace, it ends in His perfecting glory. The God of all grace, He’s never in short supply of mercy and help and He will get you to where He’s called you and here’s a final promise. He cares for you, He has called you, He will confirm you. You see that collection of promises in verse 10, “Will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, establish”, all four promises are saying the same thing, saying, I’m with you, I’m gonna help you, can you trust me, can you trust me not only today, but with tomorrow. As you’ve read before from probably Piper or Lloyd Jones and I’ve said the same thing to you, anxiety is living out the future before it gets here, that’s anxiety. When God promises, Jesus tells us that sufficient for the day are its own troubles, but His mercies are new when, they’re new every morning, every morning. Don’t live out tomorrow’s anxieties today. You haven’t gotten to tomorrow’s graces, you haven’t gotten to tomorrow’s mercies, you have mercy for today. You don’t have to think about how will I ever get through tomorrow let alone 10 more years like this? Well, you don’t have the mercy for the 10 years from today, you have mercy for today, and you have His promise that He will strengthen you, restore you, comfort and establish you, the God of the universe cares for you and He’s on your side. Marin Luther once was writing to a friend who was beset with fears and worries. Many Protestants during those days in particular were understandably afraid, they were threatened persecution, suffering, banishment, the road ahead looked difficult if not impossible. Here’s what Luther in his inimitable way wrote to his friend, “I fear not, and why should I fear. I have seen two miracles lately. I looked up and I saw the clouds above me in the noontide, and they looked like the sea that was hanging over me and I could see no cord on which they were suspended and yet they never fell. And when the noontide had gone and the midnight came, I looked again and there was above me the dome of heaven and it was spangled with stars, and I could see no pillars that held up the sky and those stars and yet they never fell. Now, he that holds the stars and moves the clouds in their course, he can do all things, and I trust him in the sight of these miracles.” Let’s pray.
Father in heaven, thank you for your many great and precious promises to us. Would you help each struggler, each sufferer here with the trials of various kinds to know that you have given us such a help, such a bullwork, such a firm foundation, help us to stand firm in it and know your kindness, your grace, and your loving care in Jesus we pray. Amen.
