Having joy even while suffering.

Last week in my Sunday small group we talked about the living hope we have in Jesus - the fact that one day we will be home in heaven with him and this life will be over.  We talked about a few of the implications of that fact, how it can help us with our life right now, how the knowledge of our future home can supply the hope that we need when life is tough today.  This Sunday, we are continuing in 1 Peter 1 and will be discussing one big implication of this living hope.  We will have the chance to talk about how this hope can permeate one particular area of life that we all seem to face at one time or another.

The times of suffering. 

At some point in our lives as Christians, if it hasn't already happened, we will face trials.  We will suffer.  We will find ourselves surrounded by pain and trouble.  It's not a maybe.  It's a definitely.  Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble." (John 16:33)  Not "you might have trouble".  Not "it's possible".  No, you WILL have trouble.  It is inevitable.  Bad things happen to good people.  It's a fact of life.  One day, in some season of life, we will have trouble.

But that's where the living hope that Peter talks about comes into play.  After he spends a few verses in chapter one talking about this hope, the fact that we have an inheritance in heaven, the fact that God is protecting us and preserving us and getting us ready for it, he makes this statement in verse 6:

"In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials."

Wow.

Peter says, even though right now you are suffering and are distressed and are stuck in the middle of overwhelming trials of all sorts, even through this, you can rejoice.  That's a pretty bold assumption.  But here is the basis for it:  Because you know that God has promised a home in heaven to you; because you know that God loves you and is protecting you and is preserving you and is leading you; because you have been given new life in Christ - you can rejoice even through the pain.

And isn't that what the living hope allows for us as well?  We have been given new life in Christ.  We have been born again.  We have been promised a home in heaven when all of this is over.  And we are being protected and preserved by God.  Because of all of this, in the middle of our trials, in the midst of our pain and suffering, we can rejoice. 

It sounds so simple, yet in reality it is so foreign to us.  When we suffer, we want to complain.  We want to have a breakdown and stay home and cry.  We don't want to rejoice in anything.  We hardly want to wake up in the mornings.  But in doing all of that, aren't we completely ruling out the power of God in our lives?  Aren't we shutting Him out and forgetting His promises? 

Consider again John 16:33.  Jesus says:

"In this world you will have trouble, but take courage; I have overcome the world." 

Don't miss that last part.  Yes we will have trouble.  Yes we will suffer pain and loss and sadness that sometimes seems too much to bear.  But Jesus reminds us that he has overcome the world.  And he has given us a living hope.  And because of that fact, and solely because of that fact. we can rejoice in the middle of the pain.  We can have courage.  We can smile and be okay.

So this is what we will be talking about this Sunday.  Hopefully the discussion will be full and rich and alive.  And I hope and pray that all of us can prepare ourselves for any trials that may befall us, resting on the hope that we have in Jesus.

God knows we all need to grow in this area... maybe especially me.