1 Peter 5:10–11 (ESV) 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. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
I have struggled with these verses for a few days so I pulled in some help. Thomas R. Schreiner says that, “Verses 10–11 together constitute the conclusion to the body of the letter and contain the message of the letter as a whole.* So true to the purpose of the letter, Peter encourages his first readers by focusing their gaze on the end times. When he speaks of a little while, he echoes what he said in the very beginning of the letter:
1 Peter 1:5–6 (ESV) who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
So he begins and ends the letter with the same thought, that our trials will be a little while, only from the perspective of eternity. In this way, he says something like Paul says here:
2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (ESV) So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
But the rest of the verse makes me think that Peter addresses life this side of heaven, when he says that the God of all grace will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. This could be a way of describing what God does for us when we see him face to face. But it seems to apply more to our needs in this life. Confirmed in who we are in Christ is a need in this life. Strengthened, even more obvious, is a need right now. To be established by this God of all grace sounds like a need that I have now as well. All of this addresses the certainty that God in Christ will safely see that those who are in Christ will persevere. We need strengthening in this life, and those who are in Christ long to be made like him and to be found faithful. We might be concerned for ourselves or for other believers, that we are not ready for some of the hard days that the Holy Spirit clearly warns us are coming. But these verses promise that the God of all grace will bring us safely through these fiery trails.
We may be frustrated with ourselves. Others may be annoyed with us or have written us off. But God’s heart toward us is grace. He has called us to his eternal glory in Christ. That future is set. But in the here and now, this God of all grace will himself, restore, himself confirm, himself strengthen, and himself establish us.
From this passage the Holy Spirit calls me to apply the truth:
Father, I know that you have called me to do what I am doing. You have called me to keep practicing these spiritual disciplines that drive the medicine of your word deeper into my soul. In this way, I don’t simply read of you, the God of grace, but I experience you restoring me, confirming, strengthening, and establishing me.
In response, this is my prayer of commitment for today.
Once again, I awakened today grieving deeply and feeling weak. But by your grace as this text promises, I have encountered you and am experiencing what this text describes. May I serve you this day in the strength you have provided.
Doxology ( a concluding act of praise to God):
To you, O Lord, be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Feedback question:
When have you recently felt the need to be restored, confirmed, strengthened, and established by the Lord himself?
*1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 244.
As I Follow 