“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.”
and settle you
“Settle” means to lay a foundation (Luke 21:14). The term is causative, as was the previous word “strengthened;” it is God who can settle your soul during adversity. The idea is Christians need to let God settle down their souls during trials.
“And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:25).
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17).
“If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister” (Colossians 1:23).
The Lord will settle your heart. God will settle you down as on a foundation. He will fasten you to the ground and fix you on a solid base as a substructure. He is the underpinning of your heart.
PRINCIPLE:
God is in the business of settling our hearts down.
APPLICATION:
God will fasten our faith on solid ground or fix us on a stable spiritual foundation by grace. When we ground or establish our faith in the bedrock of trust in God during affliction, we understand how he meets us with his grace. We discover the great truth of God’s providing grace in our most significant trials.
God can settle you and put you into the realm of spiritual stability. He can make you reliable and consistent, even under great duress. You will not go off to one extreme or another having done this. You will last because you have the stability of faith. You may not be sensational, but you are solid.
Some of us are like jackrabbits. We bound ahead, but we go asleep along the road like the rabbit in the fable. Others of us are like the turtle that keeps plodding along. We never know where the spiritual jackrabbit is going. True, sometimes they make great leaps and break all records, but they fall asleep holding their record book.
The Lord Jesus will calm your spirit. Do you have a bad temper? He will cool it down. He will quiet your soul.
