“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”
—1 Peter 5:10

The message in this verse is one that some may find hard to hear. Why? It says that in order to be perfected, confirmed, and established, we need to suffer a little while. Suffering involves the testing of our faith. It is easier to get revelation in our heads than to know it deep down on the inside. There’s a difference between getting a revelation in our minds and having it established in our hearts.

I can personally attest to the fact that sometimes my revelation is greater than my experience. A lot of the revelation I receive from the Lord needs time and personal experience in order for it to go deeper than my mind and actually be established in my soul. This is why God allows us to suffer sometimes. He puts us in difficult situations so the revelation we’ve received will be put to the test.

What do I mean by “put to the test”? Does that mean God wants to see whether we’re going to pass or fail? No. It means God is going to put us in a situation that requires us to use the revelation He has given us. Once we’ve used the revelation in a challenging circumstance, it gets rooted inside us.

Beloved, God is using everything that’s going on in your life for your good, to perfect you and conform you to the image of Christ. We all will go through trials because trials establish us and conform us to Jesus’ image. So be encouraged today. Life wasn’t meant to be easy. Just keep clinging to God, and as you do, you will become and look more and more like Jesus.

Father God, I know You use the challenges I face in life for my good, to help me grow and root Your truth deep in my heart. Help me to cling to You and never let go. Abba, I want Your Word to go from my head to my heart. I say yes to You and give You permission to do with my life whatever You want. Establish Your Word in the center of my being.

Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider, Rivers of Divine Truth (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2021), Used by permission.