Not a strange thing
The fiery trial
Peter writes to believers under real pressure, and his counsel is striking: do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you, as though something strange were happening to you. He anticipates a particular reaction to suffering — surprise, the sense that this should not be happening, that trials are evidence something has gone wrong with our faith or our standing with God.
This surprise is itself one of the enemy's tools. If he can convince us that hardship means God has abandoned us, or that the Christian life should be free of trial, then every difficulty becomes an occasion for doubt and despair. The shock multiplies the suffering, adding a crisis of faith on top of the trial itself. Peter cuts the ground out from under that surprise: do not be astonished, for this is normal, even expected.
In fact, Peter reframes the fire entirely. Rejoice, he says, insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice when his glory is revealed. The trial is not a sign of God's absence but a sharing in Christ's own path, a participation in his sufferings that leads to shared glory. The enemy wants your trials to surprise and unmake you; Peter wants them to be expected, even welcomed, as fellowship with the suffering Christ.
“Beloved, don't be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you.”
— Peter, to the suffering church — 1 Peter 4:12 (WEB)
Stop being surprised by trials as though something had gone wrong — receiving the fiery trial instead as expected, and even as fellowship in the sufferings of Christ.
“But because you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of his glory also you may rejoice with exceeding joy.”
Underneath the pain of a trial often lies a second, sharper ache — the conviction that this should not be happening, that hardship itself means God has failed or withdrawn. The interior work is to disarm that surprise, since Scripture calls trials normal rather than strange, and to receive Peter's reframing of the fire as a sharing in Christ's own sufferings, which changes the meaning of the pain without lessening it.
This week, when a trial comes, refuse the surprise that doubts God: name the hardship as expected rather than strange, and consciously offer it as fellowship in Christ's sufferings, asking him to meet you in it rather than reading it as his absence.
Surprise is the wound beneath the wound: convince a soul the Christian life should be trouble-free, and every hardship lands as proof of abandonment, stacking doubt on top of grief. The one who expects the fire and receives it as fellowship with Christ cannot be unmade by the very trials meant to shatter faith.
One of the enemy's quiet strategies is to make us expect a trouble-free Christian life, so that every trial arrives as a shock and a scandal — proof, it seems, that God has failed us or abandoned us. The surprise itself does great damage, stacking a crisis of faith on top of the suffering and turning hardship into an occasion for doubt. Peter disarms the strategy: do not be surprised, for trials are normal, not strange.
More than that, he reframes the fire as fellowship — a sharing in the sufferings of Christ that leads to a sharing in his glory. The trial that the enemy means to unmake you with becomes, rightly understood, a participation in the path your Lord himself walked. This will not remove the pain, but it transforms its meaning. When the fiery trial comes, will you let it surprise you into doubt, or receive it as the expected fellowship of Christ's sufferings?
- Do I expect a trouble-free faith, so trials shock me into doubt?
- Does the surprise itself stack a crisis of faith on top of my suffering?
- Can I receive the fiery trial as fellowship in Christ's sufferings?
Lord, I expect a trouble-free faith, so every trial shocks me into doubt, as if you had failed me. Teach me that suffering is not strange. Help me receive the fiery trial as fellowship in Christ's sufferings, and meet me in the fire on the way to your glory. Amen.