Not a Strange Thing

This post was written alongside Pastor Brian Charles’s message “The Precious Promises of Peter, Pt. 1”, preached at Mercy of God Ministries on August 30, 2026. If you want to grow in the Lord quickly, follow Pastor Brian Charles at the Mercy of God Ministries. He is an amazing teacher, preacher and pastor. When I hear the Word of the Lord, as I do under his ministry, it burns in me spirit.

If you’re a Christian right now, and you’re feeling stressed — genuinely afraid, not just uneasy — I want you to hear something before anything else: you are deeply loved, and you are highly favoured. The worlds culture around you has stopped disagreeing with your faith and started calling it dangerous. Good gets called bad. Bad gets called good. And Jesus Himself, the One you’ve given your whole heart to, has become the thing so many have become hostile toward. That’s heavy to carry. I know it is.

But none of it caught your Father by surprise. And it didn’t catch Peter by surprise either — he wrote two whole letters straight into this exact fear, with the tenderness and love of the Father. This is why Peter calls them beloved, over and over. Beloved of, Jesus, the Christ. That’s the voice I want you to hear underneath every verse below — not a lecture, but an arm around your shoulder.

“Do not be afraid of their threats”

Peter goes straight to the fear, gently, because he knows it’s there:

“But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. ‘And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.’ But sanctify the Lord Christ as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” — 1 Peter 3:14-15

Read that slowly, like it’s being spoken over you, because it is. He doesn’t pretend the threats aren’t real. He doesn’t ask you to be braver than you feel. He simply says: don’t let it own you. Let your heart settle on who Jesus already is to you and in you — Lord, regardless of what the world decides — and from that settled place of who you are in Him, you’ll always have something gentle and true to say when someone asks why you still have hope.

And your Father doesn’t leave the hard seasons unexplained. He tells you exactly what they’re doing:

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” — 1 Peter 1:6-9

Precious — that’s His word for your faith in the middle of the fire, not just after it. Nothing you’re carrying right now is wasted. It’s being handled with more care than you can see from where you’re standing, and it’s producing something in you that will still be shining when Jesus is revealed.

He names the disorientation too — that dizzy feeling when the ground shifts and your own culture turns on you:

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.” — 1 Peter 4:12

Beloved — even here, in the warning, that’s how He addresses you. It isn’t strange, dear one. It isn’t a sign anything has gone wrong. And underneath it, He reminds you exactly who you are, in case the world’s opinion has made you forget:

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” — 1 Peter 2:9

Chosen. His own. That was true before this season started, and it will still be true long after it’s over. It was never the world’s to vote on. In the light of this verse and what happens in this world, what will any of it matter in a thousand years. It will seem to us but a very distant foggy dream as we enjoy His marvelous light.

Calling evil good is not a new invention

Here’s something that might actually bring you comfort: the specific confusion you’re watching — good called evil, evil called good — isn’t new, and it wasn’t hidden from you:

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” — Isaiah 5:20

Peter saw it coming for the church too, and warned his beloved readers plainly, so they’d never be caught off guard by it:

“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.” — 2 Peter 2:1

He’s not trying to frighten you here — he’s protecting you, the way a father warns a child about a road he already knows is dangerous. When you see that confusion show up, even inside spaces that call themselves Christian, you won’t be disoriented. You’ll simply recognize it, because you were told, in love, to expect it. We must lean into Gods word in our lives so that when these come, we can tell the truth from the lies.

The precious promises

This is where 2 Peter opens, and honestly, it might be the tenderest thing in either letter:

“As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” — 2 Peter 1:3-4

Everything. Already given. Not a promise dangled in front of you for later — a gift already placed in your hands (spirit), through simply knowing Him. You have been given something so much better than an opinion to hold onto in a confused world: His own nature, sharing in it, close enough to escape the corruption around you rather than be shaped by it.

And He gives you something steady to hold onto when the noise gets loud:

“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” — 2 Peter 1:19

When the world can’t agree on what’s good and what’s evil anymore, His word isn’t one more voice shouting into the confusion. It’s the light that was already shining there, quietly, waiting for you to look at it.

The delay is not the absence of God

Part of what makes this season feel so heavy is watching evil seem to get away with it — feeling like judgment is slow and confusion is winning. Your Father answers that gently too:

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” — 2 Peter 3:9

He isn’t slow. He’s patient — reaching, right now, for people who haven’t come home yet. Maybe someone you love is in that number, in a room currently hostile to His name. That’s mercy at work, not absence. And it’s certain: the day is still coming, sudden and sure, “as a thief in the night.” The waiting is love, still doing its work.

What to actually do with this

He doesn’t just say “hold on.” He tells you, tenderly, exactly what to do with your hands:

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith… But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” — 1 Peter 5:6-10

Give Him the care you’ve been holding — really hand it over, not just carry it quietly and call that trust. Stay close to Him, because fear and confusion are exactly the ground the enemy likes to work. And then rest, because the perfecting, the establishing, the settling — that’s His to do, not yours to force.

And the last word of 2 Peter isn’t a shrug. It’s an invitation:

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” — 2 Peter 3:18

Not shrink back. Grow. Come closer to Him, and let that grace do its quiet, settling work in you.

And remember — Jesus walked this exact road first. He suffered unjustly and simply “committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:23). Not resignation. Rest. He knew whose verdict actually held weight, and it was never the world’s to give.

Dear one, you were never promised a world that would love you for following Jesus. But you were promised something better — that the One who called you out of darkness is still faithful, still patient, still coming, and that nothing you’re feeling right now means the plan has slipped. It hasn’t. He hasn’t moved. And He isn’t finished with you, so grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus who is the Christ. As you do, Peace, Love, Joy will overflow your heart.