In Housegroups this week we were looking at 1 Peter 4 and the various ways in which people who follow Jesus can suffer at the hands of those who don't. That kind of perpetual ridicule and opposition can be very wearing; it can also make us defensive and insular, people who are turned away and turned inwards by suffering.
But in verses 7-11 Peter exhorts his readers to be sufferers who serve - people who pray, who love, who share with others and who serve with all God's might.
How does that come about? Maybe verse 7 is a help, and not just with respect to praying: "The end of all things is near". Knowing suffering has an end, knowing there is glory beyond the suffering, knowing that soon the Saviour will be seen and every wrong righted - knowing such things seems to be Peter's recipe for serving others in the face of suffering.
They were good times at the Housegroups.
