Sometimes it is hard to keep a smile on your face. It is downright inauthentic to smile (stoically through clenched teeth maybe?) when life takes a turn of events that are tragic, painful, hurtful, difficult. Pain tells us something is wrong. It may be something we can change but then it also may be something beyond our power to impact. 1 Peter 1: 3-9 brings me comfort at these times.
Praise to God for a Living Hope from the NIV Bible :
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—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 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 your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
We weren't promised prosperity or peace. Will we go through troubles in life? Jesus said to his disciples in John 16:33 – “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Shalom.
