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. (1 Peter 5:10)
Sometimes in the midst of the afflictions and ordinary
stresses of daily life, we may cry out, “How long, O Lord? I can’t see beyond
today’s pain. What will tomorrow bring? Will you be there for that affliction
too?”
This question is utterly urgent, because Jesus said, “The
one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). We tremble at the
thought of being among “those who shrink back and are destroyed” (Hebrews
10:39). We are not playing games. Suffering is a horrible threat to faith in God’s
future grace.
Therefore, it is a wonderful thing to hear Peter promise
the afflicted and weary Christians, “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” (1 Peter 5:10).
The assurance that he will not delay beyond what we can
endure, and that he will abolish the flaws we bemoan, and that he will
establish forever what has tottered so long — that assurance comes from the God
of “all grace.”
God is not the God of some grace — like bygone grace. He is
“the God of all grace” — including the infinite, inexhaustible stores of future
grace, that we need to endure to the end.
Faith in that future grace, strengthened by the memory of past
grace, is the key to enduring on the narrow and hard road that leads to life.
-John Piper American
Minister 1946-
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