Why We Suffer. Grief.

1 Peter 1

3Praise 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, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These 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

Twice in here ^^ the Lord points out how important our faith is.  First it was :

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

then

 though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith

We also know this:

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God

And what does the Lord ask us about when He comes back for us?

Luke 18:8 

... However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

We live in a day and age when the preachers of Babylon tell us everything is about the Lord's grace.  Grace this and grace that and some grace to go on top of it all.  I am the most thankful among the brothers for the Lord's grace but what about FAITH?  Do we think the Lord asked

when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" 

for no reason, or does He already know the answer.  By grace and through FAITH we are saved.  We are shielded by God's power through FAITH.  And what are many of our sufferings and trials here on earth attributed to?  The testing of our faith.  The enemy tries to discount faith through the preachers that serve him.  Everything is grace with them and there is no place for faith.  What does the Word say?

Our faith is worth more than gold

 7These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire

We suffer for it and we live by it.  Our faith is being tested to weed out the kind of, sort of, maybe, fair weather Christians.

Our faith is being tested because we are about to inherit a kingdom that we cannot wrap our minds around.  What is in store for us we cannot even imagine.

1 Cor-6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,

what no ear has heard,

and what no human mind has conceived”^b —

the things God has prepared for those who love him—

10these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

Kind of awesome huh?  This ^^ inheritance is why we suffer today.  I have no doubt whatsoever that when we are in the Lord's presence and He points His finger off in the distance and says "look what I have prepared for you!" that all our present sufferings will be so far removed from our minds we will be in awe of how we were so troubled in our present state.

This is a message of encouragement.  We suffer and our faith is tested because our inheritance is real and it is beyond human imagination.  Keep the faith, it will be worth it.

grace and peace