If you want to read a book of the Bible that promises health and wealth and everything else, don’t read 1 Peter. It wouldn’t surprise me if prosperity gospel preachers have torn this book from their Bibles. See, Peter writes to struggling and stressed believers to encourage them, but he does so in a way we might not think.
First, let me ask you something. When you encounter unpleasant circumstances in your life, what sort of encouragement or advice do you receive? To pray more? Read Scripture? Get busy doing other things? In my dark times, I’ve been comforted through all these. And they are right and good ways to offer support. The Bible tells us we ought to seek God’s help, to trust His promises, and busy ourselves with kingdom work.
But as I read Peter’s first letter to these suffering Christians, “distressed by various trials” (1:6), I find a different sort of encouragement. Like we experience, these hardships may have included sickness, broken relationships, financial insecurity, unfulfilled longings, persecution, family discord, natural disasters. So does Peter admonish them to start praying that God will deliver them and bring a blessing instead? Does he quote Jeremiah 29:11 and tell them God has something better just around the corner? Not exactly. Instead he focuses his readers on something else altogether.
Throughout his letter, Peter urges believers to change hopes. That is, he wants them to cease focusing on their circumstances on earth, merely longing for better things here. He exhorts them, saying, “fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:13). No longer zooming in on the temporary distressing events, they should direct their gaze toward the eternal inheritance to come, that “which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1:4).
It is possible then to experience lasting joy throughout singleness, sickness, divorce, chronic pain, joblessness. But we must shift focus, from the momentary to the lasting, from the broken to the renewed, from the present grief to the future glory. And as we do, this switching of hopes will not only provide strength to endure, but will continually fill us with great joy, strengthen and refine our faith, and enable us to love more deeply.
So in the midst of hardship keep praying, hold fast to God’s Word, and do good deeds, all the while letting your heart hope in your future inheritance. Let your thoughts run wild wondering what heaven will look like, what you will feel in the physical presence of Jesus, and to know you will never again experience any form of stress or sin or sorrow. For we most assuredly will one day see our Savior face to face (Rev 21:3, 22:4) and dwell in a land where “there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying or pain” (Rev 21:4).
Lifting Our Gaze This Week: Ideas for Application
- Read Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven in which he examines what the Bible has to say about the topic and dreams about what it might look like. Or consider picking up his devotional, 50 Days of Heaven: Reflections That Bring Eternity To Light.
- Look up and meditate on the following Bible verses discussing our inheritance: Isaiah 60:18-22, Ezekiel 36:33-36, John 14:1-3, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:8, Revelation 21-22.
- Journal about what you think heaven will be like. Talk with God about what you’re looking forward to, unsure of, curious about. Jot down what you’re most excited about doing, seeing, experiencing.
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