Hey Advent Family,
“Jesus turned to Peter and said, ‘Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.’” — Matthew 16:23, NLT
Have you ever been faithful to God and still found yourself asking, “Lord, why now?” You prayed, served, read your Bible, tried to raise your family well, and yet the diagnosis still came, your grown child still made the decision you prayed against, the unexpected expense still appeared, or the season you thought would finally become easier became complicated again. Sometimes underneath our disappointment with God is an agreement we did not realize we had made with Him: “God, if I am faithful to You, surely You will keep certain things from happening to me.” Peter had something similar in mind. When Jesus explained that He would suffer and die, Peter said, “Never, Lord.” He loved Jesus, but he wanted a Messiah without a cross, glory without suffering, and victory without the painful road that came before it.
We can want the same thing. We want grace without discipleship, maturity without formation, wisdom without painful lessons, and resurrection without anything having to die. Yet Jesus never promised that faithfulness would make life easy. In fact, the deeper we follow Him, the more obedience may cost us something. It may cost our comfort, our time, our money, the approval of people we love, the ability to control our children, or the security of knowing exactly what comes next. Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” That does not mean every painful circumstance was directly caused by God, nor does it mean Christians should seek suffering. It means that when obedience becomes costly, we do not abandon Christ simply because the road became difficult.
Maybe the hardest seasons of your life are not evidence that God has stopped working. They may become the places where He teaches you to trust Him more deeply than comfort ever required. You may not have chosen this season, and you may not understand why God allowed it, but no season surrendered to Christ has to be wasted. Jesus chose the cross in obedience to the Father and in love for you, and He now invites you to follow Him with the same surrendered heart.
So perhaps the question today is not only, “God, why am I going through this?” but also, “God, who are You forming me to become as I walk through it with You?”
Consider meditating on this verse today:
“Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.” – Romans 8:18
God bless you,
PC