John 16:33
Troubles in this World
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
1 Peter 1:3-9
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Jesus teaches us that in this world we will have troubles...So we can expect there will be times in our lives, when we are with troubles and are grieving...Jesus knew that His followers would not only have troubles in their lives, but they would be persecuted, because they believed and followed Him...
St. Peter writes on these times and what we are to do to get through those troubled times...St. Peter tells us to praise God the Father of Jesus and in His great mercy gave us the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus...His resurrection gives us hope...The inheritance of the Son is an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, because this inheritance is one that is eternal and kept in heaven...But while God and our LORD Jesus give us this eternal hope, this world is still full of troubles...We still have to deal with them...Troubles and grief can wear us down if we let them...But God can bring us back up in our weary situations, if we hope in the LORD...St. Peter tells us that the genuineness of our personal faith is proven during our times of trouble...These times of trials and troubles, when our faith stands firm, is actually refined by these trials -and may result in praise, glory, and honor, when Jesus is revealed to us at the end of days...And though we have not seen Him, and we do not see Him now (St. Peter was an actual eyewitness of Jesus both before and after His death and resurrection) and the end of the ages He will be the One who provides us salvation of our souls, and bring us peace...
Peter himself was flogged and beaten for his own personal faith in LORD Jesus, as were the other disciples (Acts 5:40-42)...He had troubles and sufferings in his own life and has earned the right to tell us about his teachings on suffering...
When we are in these troubled times which Jesus says are bound to come, we must seek His Father and Him...We must put our thoughts and point them to God...We must stay focused on God...We must pray...We must always remember, that we are the ones who need prayer...God doesn't need to pray, we do...We need Him...There is a purpose and reason for our troubles and suffering, when we pray and hope in the LORD...Our prayers and our faith are ways that we encourage ourselves to make it through these troubled times...When we hold onto the LORD in the face of trouble, our faith is strengthened...St. Peter gives us valuable advice for holding firm in our faith in LORD Jesus, during our most troubled times...