When the test comes, don't be surprised

When you have a problem here on earth, do not be sorry, do not be surprised or dumbfounded as if it were something strange what is happening to you. If you are alive you are going to suffer difficult situations. Now, if you are dead, then you are not going to have any problems! But if you are alive and in the world you are going to have to deal with the inevitable circumstances of this fallen world, so don't be surprised when adversity hits. This is what the Apostle Peter tells his readers in 1 Peter 4:12, and that is also said to you and me. Declare: "Beloved Ones, do not be surprised by the trial fire that has befallen you."

Have you had tests in the last few months? The apostle Peter tells us: "Do not be surprised by that trial fire." He says: "As if something strange happened to you." And then he adds: "But rejoice because you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ."

That "rejoice", as I said on another occasion — as Paul also says in Philippians, "rejoice in the Lord, again I say to you: rejoice" - that "rejoice" is not an easy and superficial call. It is a "rejoice" in the spirit. It is a “rejoice” of a person who knows that behind the cloud and the test comes the blessing and there is the Presence of God.

He says: "Rejoice because you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ." Do you know, my brother, that the very nature of Jesus dictated that he suffered greatly here on Earth? The prophet Isaiah says that he was a man experienced in losses. The Lord is born under difficult conditions and dies under worse conditions. However, no one more powerful than Him, no one achieved more things than Him. He suffered many things here in the world.

We can then better understand the words of the Apostle Peter. They make it clear to us that when we are going through trials in a spiritual sense we are identifying with a very essential part of the life and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ — His nature suffered and experienced in pain and trials. You are meeting him in a very intimate and mysterious way.

Paul says that he wants to know Christ in His resurrection but also in His sufferings. Peter adds: When you suffer, you are participating in the very essence of the Lord. He says: "So that also in the revelation of His Glory you may rejoice with great joy."

Know that when you are in trial and stand firm in the Lord, confessing by faith His love and faithfulness, in some mysterious way the wings of the Spirit of God alight on you. God is with you. God is accompanying you. He is strengthening you, guiding you through the trial. You are becoming more like Christ. In the crucible of pain you will be purified like gold, and you will have intimate communion with your Master, who in turn, according to the writer of Hebrews, was perfected by afflictions (Hebrews 2:10).

To enjoy the great and beautiful things of the Lord, one must also go through tribulations. To enjoy its power we have to experience its sufferings as well. As 1 Peter 2:14 says: "If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the glorious Spirit of God rests on you."