After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

1 Peter 5:10 (NASB 1995)

This week we will be looking at the word that Pastor George Gourlay shared on Sunday titled ‘Stronger Than the Struggle’.

Firstly, it is important for us to remember that we as Christians are not told that God will remove every storm that comes our way. In fact, we are told that we will suffer for Christ’s sake. Instead of trying to avoid hard things in life, we should become experts at dealing with the difficulties of life. We see in 1 Peter 5:10 that it is after we have “suffered for a little while” that God will “restore” us and make us “strong, firm and steadfast”.

Secondly, we must remember that we can’t do this without God. When we try to get through the hard things in life in our own strength we end up angry, exhausted, burnt out and even unhealthy. When we rely on God to get through the storms of life we are able to produce the Fruit of the Spirit in the midst of hardship and difficulty.

Finally, we will see that as we go through this process, God will establish us and make us stable people. He will work on our foundations so that He can build something great in and through us.

• What storms are you facing at the moment?

• How do you normally face difficulties in life?

• How can you rely on God to get you through what you’re facing?