Admit it, you have been feeling a little weary lately. Well, maybe not in the last few days but it hasn’t been that long ago that you found yourself wondering how you were going to be able to fulfill the pressures and demands that life was saddling you with. In times like these we feel our strength flowing away from us like rain-swollen creeks breaching their banks. The expectations of others are many while your own private willingness to comply is shrinking. When it got close to the breaking point you even found yourself wondering why the God who loves you wasn’t stepping up and stemming the tide. During that season you mumbled your prayers out of a sense of duty instead of a surge of delight. Church attendance meant little because you knew what awaited you on Monday morning and you found yourself regularly preoccupied. Spouses and children and grandchildren weren’t providing the spark that they usually do. Your self-diagnosis was that you were simply tired – the problem was on the outside working its way in. Your choices seemed to have been taken away so you just woke up, did what you had to do for another day. Life had become sort of a Shampoo, Rinse, Repeat. How did things get to this point?
“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 {ESV}
It would not be wise for me to declare that you just need to read the above verse a dozen times a day for the next month and your circumstances will change. I’m unsure if things will ever change for you but I would submit that your focus is able to shift towards something that may decrease the intensity of the weight of your load. I speak to you as one who regularly lives in a well-stretched reality. I almost never feel up to the tasks which my have my name assigned to them. In my weak moments I can be irritable, resentful and fatalistic in my outlook. This normally occurs when I lose my sense of God’s presence in the midst of my obligations. When I operate alone and apart from conscious dependence on Christ, my burden seems very heavy. When I utilize insightful wisdom and discern the activity of God in the demands of my day, my own sense of the burdens dramatically lessens. Peter reminds us above that our God is “the God of ALL grace”. Beyond the grace that saves and justifies us is a massive under-utilized sea of grace that provides exactly what we need in each of our challenges. It is constantly available and always within our ability to utilize. While many say that God will never allow anything in your life that you cannot handle, I actually believe He does this to us all the time. What I do not believe is that God will allow things that you can’t handle without affording you sufficient grace in those things. He may not afford you pleasure in each moment but He will most certainly afford you power.
Peter says that his God of all grace works constantly to restore you. He is streaming spiritual nutrients your way and rehydrating your soul as life’s duties and obligations make their demands upon you. God is also confirming & strengthening you according to what Peter writes above. This means that God is moving you in a determined direction, anchoring you and placing strength in your soul via the process of allowing burdens in your life. The last word that Peter uses to describe God’s work of grace in you is the word establish. This word indicates that He is solidifying a foundation in your life. We might wonder if the foundation of Christ was not sufficient for all of life. In one sense we declare, “Of course!” Yet, in another sense, this establishing of foundation that Peter writes of is specific for a new work God will be doing in you, for you and through you. You see, your burdens and struggles are not concentrated only in the here and now. He’s preparing the foundation of your field for a future harvest – He’s preparing today for what will be required tomorrow. He’s tilling the soil of your life for new seed which will bring forth greater fruit. He is intending to build something distinct in you and, to do this, He is establishing a fresh ground to work upon. Trouble’s rotating tines help prepare the foundation for tomorrow’s blessing.
In closing, please notice how Peter opened the verse: After you have suffered a little while… The struggles end. The season of duress closes out. The final sands in the hourglass of this time of struggle ultimately run themselves out. Trouble ends. Pains subside. Fears lose their power. During the heat of affliction the impurities in our lives are burned away as dross. Yes, the suffering comes to a close but all that you benefit from through the times of trouble remains with you forever. You actually gain from the experience if you respond in humble dependence upon this God of all grace. The God of all grace is near. He is able. He is more than willing and you can be helped by Him today to accomplish His plan.
You can do that today. You should do that today. Since you can and you should, will you?
“Trouble’s rotating tines help prepare the foundation for tomorrow’s blessing.”
Now there’s a powerful & memorable quote to think on! What a blessing to know that there is divine purpose in the depth & timing of the tilling, and sovereign loving grace in the planning of the planting.