Daily Manna · Day 302 · October 29
Perfected After Suffering
“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”
Nobody can tell you how long "a while" is, and that is the hard part of this verse.
Peter writes, "after that ye have suffered a while." In his Greek the word means a little, a short time. He was writing to "the strangers scattered" across several provinces, believers who were suffering for the name of Christ. Peter was not misleading them; to people in pain no suffering feels short. He was measuring on God's scale, which is different from the one they were living on, and that gap is exactly where a person grows tired.
What Peter does say is precise, and his four verbs are worth slowing down for. "Make you perfect" translates a word used for mending nets; it is the same word the Gospels use when James and John were "mending their nets." It means putting something torn back into working order. "Stablish" means to make firm. "Strengthen" means to put power back in. "Settle" is a builder's word that means to lay something on a foundation. So God promises to mend you, make you firm, strengthen you and set you on a foundation. In every one of these, God is the One doing the work. None of them is something you must do to yourself once the hard season ends.
So how long is a while when you are inside it? Peter does not say, and no honest person can tell you either.
But notice the name Peter gives God here: "the God of all grace." He chose it on purpose. The God who called you "unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus" is the One who will finish this work. So may He mend the part of you that has torn this year. May He put you back into working order, even if it is slow. And may He set you on a foundation you did not have to lay yourself.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 302 is At a Price (2 Samuel 24:24).