"Great is He in you "rejoice" in the Lord

"In this you greatly rejoice now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 

1 peter 1:6,7

 Not long ago an American rock and roll star died. One of his fans said that she no longer had any reason to live. Idolater lose everything when their idols perish. But it is not so with believers in Christ. We have become heirs of eternal life. In every trouble our faith "shines through the gloom and points us to the skies."

   This portrait of peter takes us far from the sea of Galilee. He is a prisoner for the zlord in Rome not long before his execution under Nero. It is Peter's final exam in the school of faith. His faith in Jesus enables peter to face death. The memory of Jesus revelation at the sea of Galilee enables Peter to encourage other believers. Peter hold out to them the hope that is ours in Christ's empty grave and beyond our grave: "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you" (1Peter1:4). Our faith may be tried in different ways. We may be in our own prison hospitalized with an incurable disease or awaiting the outcome of major surgery. Peter teaches us to see the divine purpose in every trial of faith. Tgat hymn we sang in church service may come to to us in our present circumstance with fuller meaning and greater comfort:

             The clouds ye so much dread

             Are big with mercy and shall break

              In blessing on your head.

                                                 (TLH 514:3)

Luther wrote, "If God disposes that you must suffer, accept it, console yourself with bliss that is eternal, not temporal. . . . Peter likens the gold that is tested by fire to the testing of faith by temptation and suffering. . . . Thus God impose the cross on akk Christians to purge them that faith may remain pure, as the Wird is, so that one adheres to Word alone and relies on nothing else. For we really need such purging every dax because of the Old Adam."

  May Peter's faith while a prisoner of the Lord show us the divine purpose in every trial of faith, that we, also, receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls!