Our heavenly Father is a teacher from God))). He teaches us not for the sake of grades, but so that we really learn. We will go through His lessons again and again, until we have fully mastered the material)))

I used to think He teaches us different things. But now that the Lord has begun to reveal His grace to me, I have understood this: the lessons are different, but the essence is the same. And that essence is trust in Him. Always, in everything, in all circumstances. There are wonderful verses in chapter 1 of the first epistle of Peter:

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ…
–1 Peter 1:6-7

This is a very well-known passage of Scripture, and we have heard many sermons on it. The main idea that came across to us was this: God tests our faith. But some time ago God showed me this passage of Scripture in a completely different light, in the light of His grace and Christ’s finished work.

Let’s think about it together.

Tell me, isn’t our God an all-knowing God? Here are some passages of Scripture that say God knows all our thoughts and desires.

… For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. [Mat.6:8]

… You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. [Ps.139:2-4]

…the LORD … understands all the intent of the thoughts… [1 Chr.28:9]

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him… [Heb.4:13]

Don’t be confused that I have cut these verses short; I simply wanted to put the emphasis on exactly this, without distracting your attention with anything else: God knows everything, and He doesn’t need to send us trials to find out whether we have faith or not. Nor does He need to test our faith. He already knows that our faith is not enough anyway. That is why He sent Christ, so that HE would become the author and finisher of our faith! [Heb.12:2]. He is our faith! And in general there is nothing in ourselves good enough to please Him: everything was destroyed by sin, which is why mankind needed Christ. He is our everything!

At the end of the 19th century there lived a man named Albert Benjamin Simpson. He worked hard for God and experienced a miraculous healing. He also wrote down his sermons. I read one of them, and I was simply amazed by a revelation he shared in that sermon. Whenever he came to God with any need, the Heavenly Father always had one answer to everything: “My child! Christ in you!” God told him that this is the great mystery revealed to us [Col.1:27]. Here is a quotation from that sermon:

“You were healed by faith,” a friend once remarked to me.

“Oh, no!” I answered. “I was healed by Christ.” What is the difference? The difference is enormous. There were times in my life when even faith came between me and Jesus. I thought I had to work up faith, so I laboured to get it. Once I thought I had it, and I tried to hold on to it with all my weight. When I thought I had faith, I said: “Heal me.” I was putting my hope in myself, in my own heart and my own faith. I was asking God to do something for me because of something that was in me, and not because of something that was in Him.

So the Lord allowed the devil to test my faith, and he devoured it like a roaring lion. And then I found myself so broken that I did not even think I had any faith at all. God allowed my faith to be taken from me to such an extent that I felt as if I had none at all.

And then God seemed to speak to me, so tenderly, saying: “Never mind, My child. You have nothing, but I am perfect power, I am perfect love. I am faith, I am your life, I am the preparation for the blessing, but I am the blessing itself too. I am within, I am without, I am all in all forever.”

The point is to have “the faith of God”, as Jesus exhorted His disciples in [Mar.11:22]. “The life which I now live in the flesh I live…” — not by faith in the Son of God, but “by the faith of the Son of God” [Gal.2:20 KJV].”

But what about these verses from 1 Peter?

God put in me a desire to search the Scriptures, and so I wanted to check what the word “faith” means.

The Greek word for faith is πίστις (pistis), and its very first meaning is faith, trust in someone. And then it simply dawned on me! Faith is trust. That is what is worked in us when we go through trials! That is what God teaches us all our life: to trust Him, to trust that He has already taken care of everything, that He always has an answer and a solution to all our problems and needs. And all this, as the second part of verse 7 says, is to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

To whose praise and glory? Ours? No! The epistle to the Ephesians says a great deal about what God has done for us in Christ — all this was to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph.1:4-6). And in general we are saved by GRACE, and that not of ourselves, not of works, LEST ANYONE SHOULD BOAST! [Eph.2:8-9].

I once wrote that we have one universal revelation: Christ has already FINISHED EVERYTHING. Think about it! Everything, absolutely EVERYTHING, God has already provided for us and our life! How do I know this? From Scripture: “as His divine power has given to us ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO LIFE AND GODLINESS, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” [2 Pet.1:3]

But that verse also speaks of joy, so how can we rejoice in trials? All these questions come because, when reading Scripture, we forget the context.

Let’s look carefully at what is written there:

6. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials…

In what? I think in this case it is worth looking at what is written above:

…Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
5. who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
–1 Peter 1:2-5

Aha! There is the answer. This is what to rejoice in:

1) The grace and peace that are multiplied to us

2) That the blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again from the dead through the resurrection of Christ

3) He has begotten us again to a living hope

4) To an inheritance INCORRUPTIBLE, UNDEFILED, THAT DOES NOT FADE AWAY, reserved in heaven for us

5) That we are kept for salvation by the mighty power (authority) of God (this means the salvation of our bodies)

6) That this salvation of our bodies (our resurrection from the dead in the literal sense) is already ready to be revealed in the last time.

Don’t you want to shout HALLELUJAH with me?!

For even in circumstances where we do not see with our physical eyes what the Lord has done for us, we have just found at least 6 reasons for joy. And that is in only 6 verses of one epistle! And how much more is written in the word of God that we pay so little attention to!

But, as it is written: eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

BUT GOD HAS REVEALED THEM TO US THROUGH HIS SPIRIT. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God [1 Cor.2:9,10].

Dear ones! Beloved! Saints! Righteous ones! Lift up your eyes now to Him: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us ALL things?” [Rom.8:32]

So, as we come to know Him, our trust in Him grows and grows. How can we not trust SUCH a God?

In the same passage, further down, Peter reveals the theme of our trust in God even more, describing how we have been given what the ancient prophets longed to look into but could not. And as a conclusion he says in verse 13:

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and REST YOUR HOPE FULLY UPON THE GRACE THAT IS TO BE BROUGHT TO YOU at the revelation of Jesus Christ“.

Listen! God BRINGS us grace on a silver platter! Here it is! Take it! Use it! Put your hope in it! Here it lies, ready for you!

It is no accident that the apostle Peter writes about exactly this right after those verses about the testing of faith. God never intended us to go through any circumstances in our life without the grace He brings to us — an abundance of overflowing grace! [Eph.2:7]

My prayer today for myself and for you, for my children and husband, and for your children, husbands and wives, is that we would thirst, and thirst every day, and come here, to the throne of GRACE, to drink from Him, the fountain of living water, freely!

… And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely (by grace) [Rev.22:17].

With love in Christ, beloved.