And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
1 Peter 5:10
In God’s timeline, suffering is temporary. While it is part of the human experience, every breakdown leads to a breakthrough, every setback leads to a remarkable comeback, every closed door leads to many open ones. We must trust that regardless of the challenges, pain, or suffering we’re experiencing—be it physical affliction, heartbreak, financial loss, or loss of a loved one—the aftermath is always rooted in God’s personal restoration in you.
There is a four-fold promise that God gives us—restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish. During the journey of overcoming trials and tribulations, God will first restore us by mending our hearts and minds, freeing us from the emotional, physical, and spiritual pain. Then, He will confirm—establishing with certainty why the trial or tribulation occurred and what it was meant to teach us. From there, He will strengthen—fortifying our spirit with more wisdom and enlightenment, expanding us into a wiser, more powerful beings. Lastly, He will establish us—setting us on a new, solid foundation, where the pain we once felt becomes our purpose, the information learned becomes embodied wisdom, and the journey we traveled becomes one we will then teach others about.
The remarkable nature of God is that He will do this work in us, personally and faithfully. It is our eternal calling and glory that suffering cannot diminish—but it will always be used for the higher good. God will always enable us to alchemize our darkness into more light, transform the pain into something beautiful.
Through God’s grace, what was once only known as your suffering will soon become the initiation to our higher selves and the portal towards our soul’s calling. Knowing this, we must trust God’s timing and purpose, remembering that even in painful seasons, He is strengthening our spirits in order to fulfill the destinies He’s laid out for us.
