He Cares for Us

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  Be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the dominion forever and ever.  Amen.  
1 Peter 5:6-11

The battle lines have been drawn; the strategies are in place.  The results of this war are very real, for our very souls are at stake.

Our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, and it seems as if at Wesley's birth he identified a family upon whom to pounce.  His desire, more than anything, is to devour our family, destroy our faith, ruin our marriage, lead our children into rebellion against their Savior, and ruin our witness.  He will stop at nothing to accomplish his purposes.

We have been sober-minded.  We have been watchful.  But yet here we lie beneath the extended claws that await God's permission to destroy our very lives.  We fight to resist him, desiring to be firm in our faith but yet trembling in fear and sometimes resigned to the outcome.  We have been made aware of our complete and utter dependence on the Lord for salvation.  For we fight not against flesh and blood.  Against man, we might have a chance of standing, but against the prince of darkness, we tremble feebly.

I often feel like Peter, of whom Jesus said in Luke 22:31, "Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail."

We are most certainly being sifted.  Every blackened speck of our sinful hearts is being shaken to the surface and mixed with sins of each other to create a cesspool that pulls us down as if to drown us as we tenuously grip the line of faith being offered.

Sometimes the promise that the God of all grace has called us to His eternal glory in Christ seems so far off that it doesn't even apply to today's battle.  Where is His grace for today?  The promise that He Himself will restore, confirm, strengthen and establish us can feel like a fairy tale ending rather than a firm rock to stand on in this very moment.

But yet, His promise is true.  One day, God will restore to us the years that the locust has eaten. (Joel 2:25)  We may be sowing in tears, but we shall reap with shouts of joy.  As the ESV Study Bible says, "Thus, no matter how long or intense one's suffering may be, it will be short compared to the joys of eternity. Four verbs (restore, confirm, strengthen, establish) remind believers that God will eventually restore whatever they have lost for the sake of Christ. Though suffering will come first, it will be followed by eternal glory.  The God who effectually called believers by his grace will fortify them with his strength, so that they are able to endure to the end."

Praise God that no matter how weak our faith or tenuous our grasp, He will never let us go. He will give us His strength to endure to the end.  And one day, He will restore us.  And He will confirm us.  And He will strengthen us.  And He will establish us.  Forever.

So for now, "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places." Habakkuk 3:17-19