1 Peter: Confidence in a Complex WorldSample

22: Stand Fast

In the silence, You won't let go
In the questions, Your truth will hold
Your great love will lead me through
You are the peace in my troubled sea

(My Lighthouse, Rend Collective)

Struggles on the outside can birth doubts on the inside. Peter wrote to Christians shoved to the margins of society and insulted for their faith. As slaves were beaten, wives pressurised, and citizens branded turncoats, their faith probably wobbled at times. But God’s love would lead them through; he would be the peace in their troubled sea. 

Throughout his letter, Peter sought to ‘re-story’ his audience – to help them see their identity and purpose in this world through gospel glasses. Yes, they may be on the fringes, they may feel like foreigners in their own homes, but they are right at the heart of God’s missionary strategy. God had chosen them, they were his royal priests, declaring his praise in a dark world. In all the mess and ambiguity of life, they were called to be confident, Christlike disciples. 

But if you learn a new tennis serve, it’s tempting to return to your default setting if you’re 15-40 down, facing match point. Likewise, as these Christians faced increasing pressure, the possibility of sliding back into old ways was very real. It would be very easy to stop living according to the gospel story, and slip back into a pagan one.

Like those early Christians, like Christians in every time and place, you face a constant battle to keep being who God calls you to be, and doing what he calls you to do. You must ‘stand fast’ in ‘the true grace of God’ (5:12). You can do this confident that ‘the God of all grace … will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast’ (5:10).

Now that you’ve reached the end of this journey through 1 Peter, perhaps you’ve started to see God, yourself, and your day-to-day life in a new way. Maybe you’ve started doing some things differently. What is going to help this change to stick, so that it becomes your new natural? What will standing fast look like for you? 

My prayer for you, wherever you are, is that you might stand fast in the gospel. May you be confident in who God has called you to be and what he calls you to do. The God of all grace will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.  

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Reflect:

Now that you have finished this journey, what one thing would you like to be different from now on?

What spiritual practices, people or resources might be helpful to keep you growing as a confident disciple of Jesus?

Pray:

Thank God for this amazing letter of 1 Peter. God inspired it and gave his people the desire and means to preserve and translate it. Thank God for all you’ve learnt as a result. Pray that he will help you to hold onto the good changes you’ve made. Ask him to help you keep growing as a follower of Jesus in the whole of your life. 

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The Gateway Seven Series

Did you know? This devotional journey is part of our Gateway Seven series. The series’ first three titles – 1 Peter, Exodus, and Proverbs Bible studies – are out now. You could share what you’ve learned with your home group by using the 1 Peter study, or explore a new book of the Bible through one of the other studies, all with a whole-life focus. Discover now.