What is greater than knowing Jesus is on your side? When everything else falls away and you’re left alone and exposed wondering how you’ll endure, what is greater than knowing you are accepted by the King of the universe, by God himself? You’re not accepted because of what you’ve done or because of who you have become on your own but because God has graciously set his love upon you and sent Jesus to save you.

Suffering well for Christ is courageous. Yet to many of us, it might seem impossible. When we are alone, and the questions come, and we start feeling the pressure—how do we stand for Jesus? What do we have in that moment that makes the difference?

Submission is a deeply anti-American quality. But it is a distinctly Christian one.

Yes, we live in hard days. We endure suffering. But we also rejoice in our suffering because we know that God has saved us, is saving us, and will save us on that great and final day. This isn’t a vague prediction; it’s a signed, sealed, and delivered promise guaranteed by the blood of Jesus and his resurrection.

As he begins, Peter gives insight into how God thinks about us. Peter learned these things himself, so it’s not just high-brow theology. This is in-the-pit-of-despair truth. In these two opening verses to suffering people, Peter shows at least three things we can find in God—things hard to believe in times of suffering, but vital to believe.