4 Things You Must Take to Heart in a Difficult Time

By Pastor Chris White
We live in a time of great uncertainty where change seems to be constant and most of it doesn’t seem to be “change for the better.”  From frightening natural disasters and unexpected job losses, to broken relationships and protracted illnesses, life can throw a lot of difficult things in our path.  Back in the early days of Christianity, the Apostle Peter was leading the church of Rome through a terrible persecution (this was when Nero burned Rome and scapegoated the Christians) and decided to write his Christian friends in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) to tell them to prepare their minds and hearts for persecution that was most certainly on the way.  This document (the Epistle of 1 Peter in the New Testament) is just as vital today as it was then in teaching us how we are to think and act in difficult times.

1.  We have a guarantee of “tomorrow” from the God who made “today”.  1 Peter 1:3 reads “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”.  It’s sad how many empty promises people are given and hang on to for hope these days.  The economy and stock market are going up, happy days are here again.  Vote for me and I’ll change things for the better.  Really, I mean it this time!  If you take this supplement three times daily you will finally have a perfect body, whiter teeth, fresher breath and loads of sex appeal.  Go to this all-inclusive resort and you’ll have the time of your life.  Peter calls our hope as Christians a living one because it is anchored in Jesus Christ being raised from the dead.  The greatest existential threat to all people that today may be their last.  If you belong to Christ, you have the certainty of living through death because Christ did and came back to talk about it.  He said that he goes to prepare a place for us that where he is, there we shall be also (Jn. 14:3).  No matter what happens in this life, there is a certain promise we will outlive our problems.
2. We have a certain future that is far better than our present.  St. Peter goes on to say in his letter that we are called to an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1:4) that is kept in heaven for us.  This is fundamentally the opposite of what we experience here on earth.  Virtually everything perishes, becomes corrupted (the meaning of the defilement in the New Testament), and fades.  Sometimes the principle of entropy is the very source of the difficult time we are in.  The car breaks down and it can’t be fixed.  Relationships disintegrate because of an accumulation of broken trust.  The fit and firm body we once had is worn out.  The promise that we must take to heart is that there will be a day when things will stop falling apart and fading away.  This life requires us to accept many losses, sometimes loss at a catastrophic level.  In heaven this will be no more.  Life will always be getting better.
3. We have “coverage” better than any insurance policy.  In 1 Peter 1:5 he says we are, by the power of God, “being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  The word Peter uses for being guarded is a military term that can also be translated “shielded”.  The idea is that God shields his people in difficult circumstances.  “Now wait a minute,” I can hear you say, “God didn’t shield me when such and so happened!”  First of all, I said circumstances not consequences.  Sometimes the difficulties we face are actually the consequences of our poor choices or sinful thinking.  God sometimes does protect us from the full consequences of our sin, but he is not raising us to be perpetual children, but the responsible adults of his kingdom.  Therefore, he helps us to grow up by making us live with the consequences of our choices.  But other times God doesn’t shield us from external forces but rather gives us internal armor to withstand those forces.  This is what I would call unfailing endurance.  Either way, God does protect his own until the day when we realize all of his promises in Christ.
4. We have a joy separated from personal circumstance.  In 1 Peter 1:6, Peter speaks of his friends rejoicing even though “now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.”  Why would anyone rejoice in their trials?  Because trials test and prove out the reality of our faith.  It is what I would call a “Francis Scott Key experience.”  As he spent the night of Sept. 14, 1814 on a British battleship watching our nation’s enemy bombard Fort McHenry for 20 hours, his excitement was not about the “rocket’s red glare” or “the bombs bursting in air” but that despite the ordeal, the Star - Spangled Banner was still there.  So with our faith.  We see in the ordeal that we still trust God and that he gives us endurance.  This in turn gives confidence that he is living in us and we in him and that our faith is real.  When you know God loves you and the promise of heaven is real, joy abounds without being connected to your personal circumstance.

None of these things will make going through a difficult time a pleasant or enjoyable experience.  But as Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church writes: “the way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act.”  When we think differently about the troubles we face and focus on the long-term promise of future grace, it makes the weight of circumstances a bit easier to bear.  Hope always has that kind of effect.