Stand Firm Through Trials

Peter’s words became real in our lives when you’re actually living them: “Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.” (1 Peter 1:6–7)

Trials don’t show up because you’re failing. They show up because you’re moving. Pressure is the proof of progress. When you sit still long enough, you don’t get many challenges — you simply drift into frustration, lack, or stagnation. But when you move forward in your calling, something will often push back.

Trials Reveal the Strength of Your Faith

Peter says our faith is tested like gold in fire. Not to destroy it, but to reveal its purity. The enemy attacks precisely because you’re dangerous. He’s looking for someone to devour, someone who will back up and crumble. But Scripture says: stand firm in the faith.

Jesus Himself faced this testing in the wilderness. If the enemy came for Him, he’ll certainly come for you. But the pressure is never stronger than the foundation you stand on. Christ is the cornerstone, and His Word stabilizes everything built on Him.

What Trials Actually Test

Trials test your boldness. They expose whether you’re living from your righteousness in Christ or from your own strength. Boldness is the natural fruit of knowing you’re right with God. And the righteous are bold as a lion.

Trials also test your joy — the “inexpressible joy” Peter speaks of. Joy isn’t a mood. It’s spiritual strength. It comes from the well of salvation within you, the rivers of living water ready to flow if you let them.

The Pressure of Real Resistance

Some pressure is ordinary life. But some pressure is outright spiritual resistance. The enemy pushes because you’re moving. He tests because he wants to see if your confidence will crumble.

I’ve felt this personally. Sitting in a car outside waiting for my son to finish army cadets, tired, tempted to do nothing, tempted to switch off — but choosing instead to write, to push forward, to obey the call. Choosing to resist laziness with purpose. Sometimes resistance looks dramatic. Sometimes it looks like simply doing what God told you to do when you don’t feel like it.

And yes, there are bigger pressures too — moments where emotions wobble, where accusations rise, where circumstances don’t change overnight. I’ve faced those recently. I’ve cried. I’ve wobbled. I’ve prayed. I’ve held on. But every time something new comes at me, I laugh — not because it’s funny, but because I recognize the attack. And heaven laughs with me.

The Real Way You Resist

Peter gives the real formula: Humble yourself. Cast your cares. Stay alert. Resist the enemy.

Humility isn’t weakness — it’s dependence. It’s saying, “The battle is the Lord’s, even though the victory is mine.” I don’t fight in my own strength. I fight by standing. I fight by speaking the Word. I fight by submitting to God’s love, because faith works by love.

When you cast your care, you make room for peace to guard your heart. And peace becomes spiritual clarity: the ability to resist the enemy without collapsing under pressure.

When Victory Takes Time

Not every battle ends overnight. Some breakthroughs have a time element — legal processes, relational healing, physical symptoms, situations shaped by someone else’s will. But the timing doesn’t change the truth: the victory is already yours.

Faith praises before the natural catches up. It sees the answer while circumstances still look unchanged. You don’t rejoice because it’s over — you rejoice because the victory has been won.

God’s Promise After the Trial

Peter ends with a promise worth holding onto with both hands:

“After you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, strengthen, and establish you on a firm foundation.” (1 Peter 5:10)

This is God’s pattern: after pressure, restoration. After testing, strengthening. After resistance, establishment.

Whatever you’re facing today — emotional pressure, physical challenge, spiritual attack, relational strain, financial uncertainty — He is already working. He is restoring. He is supporting. He is strengthening. He is placing your feet on a firmer foundation than you stood on before the trial began.

There is wonderful joy ahead.

Stand firm. Keep your joy alive. Keep speaking the Word. Keep resisting. The God who called you is bringing it to pass.

— Andy