"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."
When we look at the context of the passage we see that Peter is addressing trials and tribulation that the church is going through at this time. I would expect, if I did a bit of research, that 1 Peter was written at a time in history when Christians were going through an immense amount of persecution.
Verse 8 charges us with the command to be "sober-minded" and then goes on to tell us why.
Why should Christians be sober-minded? Because Satan is just waiting to get the chance to devour us. This verse compares him to a roaring lion. In other words, Satan want to destroy our lives. He wants to ruin our relationship with our Holy God. He wants us to reject our Savior, and in this he "devours" us.
Verse 9 then gives another charge to the Christian. RESIST HIM! Peter speaks imperatively. He tells us to stand firm in our faith and be comforted by the fact that YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are experiencing similar sufferings.
Furthermore, Peter gives the follower of Christ hope in verse 10. He says that after the suffering comes God's grace. After the suffering comes God's restoration. After the suffering comes God's confirmation in your heart that He is with you and has never left you. After the suffering comes His mighty strength. After the suffering comes establishment in his Kingdom, or in other words the purpose for the suffering.
Peter is trying to tell us that when we go through suffering, it does not return void. God is not gone or missing in those times. He is working, building us up and fashioning us for something down the road that we don't know about or quite understand, but as we wait for God to reveal that future purpose, we are restored and strengthened, and given peace through the wonderful, outpouring of His beautiful grace.
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