"You who by Gods power are guarded through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" - 1 Peter 1: 5, RSV
Peter is spelling something out here for those readers of his. He is informing them what their present experience is to be....'guarded by power' - the word means 'garrisoned'
God has set a garrison around his people. Knowing this..... when we are inclined to complain about our circumstances, when we are inclined to worry about the way things are going, it is well to remind ourselves, that being born again we are moving forward to that hope of our inheritance, and that here and now God has set a garrison around us.
This garrison is the mighty power of the Holy Spirit who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. What greater power could there be available for us than resurrection power? But it also involves our being tested. "Now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials , so that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ" vv 6-7
To go through times of testing and difficulty and hardship is not a sign that God has left us; it is not a sign that somehow we are out of the Spirit's will. Such times of difficulty and hardship may well be God's gracious gift to us so that by His Holy Spirit we may be tested, like gold in fire, and discovering the presence of the Spirit even in those moments, we may enter into this full salvation in difficult, as well as easy circumstances.
Peter is spelling something out here for those readers of his. He is informing them what their present experience is to be....'guarded by power' - the word means 'garrisoned'
God has set a garrison around his people. Knowing this..... when we are inclined to complain about our circumstances, when we are inclined to worry about the way things are going, it is well to remind ourselves, that being born again we are moving forward to that hope of our inheritance, and that here and now God has set a garrison around us.
This garrison is the mighty power of the Holy Spirit who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. What greater power could there be available for us than resurrection power? But it also involves our being tested. "Now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials , so that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ" vv 6-7
To go through times of testing and difficulty and hardship is not a sign that God has left us; it is not a sign that somehow we are out of the Spirit's will. Such times of difficulty and hardship may well be God's gracious gift to us so that by His Holy Spirit we may be tested, like gold in fire, and discovering the presence of the Spirit even in those moments, we may enter into this full salvation in difficult, as well as easy circumstances.
