Great, you accepted Christ, now everything will be easy.
That is not exactly what Peter has in mind. He wants the church to know that they will experience suffering, but that their suffering will have a purpose. As you read today, think about the difficult things in your life. What good is God working through them?
1 Peter 1:1–2:12 (MEV)
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the refugees scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification by the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that does not fade away, kept in heaven for you,
5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now, if for a little while, you have had to suffer various trials,
7 in order that the genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tried by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
8 whom, having not seen, you love; and in whom, though you do not see Him now, you believe and you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
9 receiving as the result of your faith the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that should come to you have inquired and searched diligently,
11 seeking the events and time the Spirit of Christ, who was within them, signified when He foretold the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, concerning the things which are now reported to you by those who have preached the gospel to you through the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven—things into which the angels desire to look.
13 Therefore guard your minds, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14 As obedient children do not conduct yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.
15 But as He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct,
16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
17 And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourning.
18 For you know that you were not redeemed from your vain way of life inherited from your fathers with perishable things, like silver or gold,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
20 He was foreordained before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for you.
21 Through Him you believe in God who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Since your souls have been purified by obedience to the truth through the Spirit unto a genuine brotherly love, love one another deeply with a pure heart,
23 for you have been born again, not from perishable seed, but imperishable, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.
24 For “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.” This is the word that was preached to you.
1 Therefore put away all wickedness, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking.
2 As newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow,
3 if it is true that you have experienced that the Lord is good.
4 Coming to Him as to a living stone who is rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious,
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 For also it is contained in the Scripture, “Look! I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes in Him shall never be put to shame.”
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious. But to those who are disobedient, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and, “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they are disobedient to the word, to which also they were appointed.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may declare the goodness of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
10 In times past, you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Dearly beloved, I implore you as aliens and refugees, abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.
12 Live your lives honorably among the Gentiles, so that though they speak against you as evildoers, they shall see your good works and thereby glorify God in the day of visitation.