Promised Purpose

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Rub some dirt on it. Life’s not fair. Life is hard and then you die. It’s a hard-knock life for us. Play the hand you’re dealt.

Through phrases like this, the world tries to provide truth and comfort to those who experience hardship in life. Maybe there’s a little bit of truth to some of these phrases, but what does God’s Word tell us about facing hardship?

God’s Word actually gives us hope in times of hardship because of the good things it can produce in us.

Sometimes it’s actually the toughest moments in our lives that God uses to shape us into the kind of person we need to become. Think of how difficult or intimidating it was when you first started middle school or high school. Over time, you probably got adjusted to it and were able to step into school without it being as difficult as it was on the first day. Your experience of that first difficult day probably made the rest of the days a little bit easier, right?

The trials we face can actually produce endurance, character, and confidence in God. This is true when we face opposition to our faith. God can use persecution to grow us into stronger, more complete disciples of Jesus. There is a purpose that God can redeem in us — even in the hardest of situations.

When in your life did you have the opportunity to grow from something that was challenging? How might God allow persecution for our faith to produce good things in us?