Last week, as I read Matthew 16, I came across the verses (21-23) where Jesus revealed to His disciples that He was going to suffer and die in Jerusalem, but that He’d be raised to life; and Peter rebukes Jesus for saying such things. Jesus turns away from Peter and says, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

You see, Peter wasn’t seeing things the way the Father sees things. Much like us, he saw only what he thought should happen; what he wanted and expected to happen. But He, like other Jews, was thinking too small. He thought the Messiah would come and rescue them from Roman rule. God the Father wanted to rescue all mankind from sin and death; He brought everlasting life through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for all who believe!

So often, we think the same way. We think God’s going to save us from our particular situation or trial in a particular way. We think, if we had a particular leader,  for instance, things would change for the better. We tend to focus on the here and now and think God will make a way, He’ll heal us completely, He’ll open that door, restore that relationship, etc…but sometimes that’s not His plan. Sometimes, in our suffering, others see our dependence, strength, and peace in the Father and ask, “How?” Sometimes, God chooses something for us that we would never do or choose to walk on our own; something that makes us uncomfortable, brings us to our knees, and stretches our trust and faith in Him. He places us in locations and circumstances where we can be salt and light as we walk out our faith.

There are so many Old Testament examples of God using men and women, like you and I, for His glory. Men like Joseph, whose jealous brothers sold him into slavery, only for him to eventually be placed second in command to Pharoah and save the lives of countless people. Like Moses, whose mother placed him in a reed basket and sent him down a river to avoid slaughter. Yet, he was drawn from the river, faced down a Pharoah, and lead the Israelites through the wilderness to the promised land. They couldn’t see how their stories would turn out or how they would affect the future (or see how Christ was foreshadowed in their delivery). Naomi didn’t see how the death of her husband and sons and the faithfulness of her daughter-in-law would put her in the lineage of Christ.

In the New Testament, while we see the many miracles of Jesus, we also see men imprisoned, beaten, and martyred for their faith and sharing the Gospel. You may think, “But I don’t understand, doesn’t Romans 8:28 tell us “that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose”? First, I think we often miss that last part, “according to His purpose.” God will always do that which brings glory to Himself and draws men to Him; He’s building His kingdom, not our’s. Second, I think we forget that things that are good for us aren’t always pleasing. Trials aren’t easy or pleasing, neither is discipline. Yet,  Romans 5:3-5 tells us that we ought to “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” And Hebrews 12:11 says discipline “yeilds the  peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Therefore, it’s for our eternal good that God works all things together!

We know that in this life, we will have trials (James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7); and we shouldn’t say this flippantly, because some circumstances have the ability to shake us to our core. It’s no coincidence that in Matthew 16:24-28, just after this incident with Peter, Jesus tells the disciples that to follow Him would be costly. That they would have to deny themselves and pick up their cross to follow Him. We have to deny ourselves and the way we think things should go, the way we think our lives should pan out, the hopes and dreams and goals we may have, and surrender them at the feet of Christ, saying “thy will be done, not my will. Thy kingdom come, not my kingdom.” It’s hard! Jesus said that the gate to eternal life is hard and narrow, and few will find it (Matthew 7:13-14). We may not be able to see the end, but we serve a God outside of all time who sees how everything will work out, how all the pieces will come together for our eternal good and His glory; and we can’t rest in that.