Take us by surprise? Yes. Reveal our fear, anxiety, anger, and self-pity? Definitely. Bring sadness and pain? Absolutely. Tests do a lot of things, but what right bring into our lives?
In his letter to the Jewish Christians in the dispersion, James delivers this imperative: “Have great joy, my brothers, when you find yourself in various trials, knowing that the trial of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3). .
These are great verses to memorize in a Sunday school class, but what happens when we lose our job and can’t pay the mortgage? What good is chemotherapy, being in intensive care, suffering a car accident or persecution for our faith?
When true faith survives the heat of refinement, the fruit is sweeter than the cost suffered.
There is a reason why James tells us to count it all joy when we find ourselves in trials like these. He knows that when true faith survives the heat of refinement, the fruit is sweeter than the cost. Here are eight ways testing helps build consistency.
1. Trials deepen our prayer lives.
When we are overwhelmed, we can pray like Jehoshaphat: “We don’t know what to do; but our eyes are turned toward you” (2 Chr 20:12). In response to devastating news, we weep, fast, and pray as Nehemiah did (Neh 1:3-4). In the midst of worry, our requests are made known before God and we cast all anxiety on Him, because He cares for us (Phil 4:6; 1 Pet 5:7). When we lack words to pray, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness” interceding “for us with groanings that cannot be spoken” (Ro 8:26). Humble prayer cultivates a dependence on God, attacks our pride, and prepares us to delight in the Lord, who hears and responds according to his wisdom.
2. Trials increase our knowledge of God’s Word and character
A season in the desert invites us to internalize God’s promises, to learn like the wandering Israelites that we do not live on bread alone but “on everything that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Dt 8:3). The psalmist says: “It is good for me to be afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (Ps 119:71) and Job confesses “I have heard only by hearsay, but now my eyes see you” (Job 42:5). God often uses suffering to grow our knowledge of his Word and his true character.
3. Trials increase our gratitude to our Savior
When we experience pain, we remember how Jesus drank from the cup of God’s wrath on our behalf. He prayed: “Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me; but not My will, but Thine be done” (Lk 22:42), and then he was “smitten for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities” (Is 53:5).
Humble prayer cultivates a dependence on God, attacks our pride, and prepares us to delight in the Lord, who listens to us and answers according to his wisdom.
Our pain makes us more aware of the pain of Jesus, increasing our gratitude for the agony he suffered on the cross. We also rejoice that through his sacrifice, our sin is forgiven and our salvation assured. We remember and cry out: “Thank you, Jesus, for suffering in our place!”
4. Trials make us more like Jesus
Although Joseph’s brothers thought to do him harm, “God turned it for good” to keep many alive during the famine (Gen 50:20). Our redeeming God, who worked out our salvation through Jesus’ painful sacrifice on the cross, continues to work all things, including our trials, for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28-29). One good thing that God does through our difficulties is to make us more like Jesus, who “learned obedience by what he suffered” (Heb 5:8).
5. Trials equip us to comfort others
In our trials, God intends to comfort us so abundantly that we are filled with compassionate care for others. Paul writes that God “comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we also can comfort those who are in any affliction” (2 Cor 1:4). God wants us to bring his comfort to other families, friends and neighbors. Our experience of trials helps us understand what others might feel and need, and our experience of God’s comfort prepares us to stand beside them to pray and serve gently.
6. Trials prepare an eternal weight of glory
We may not be able to see what our tests are doing, but they are working. All “light and fleeting affliction produces an eternal weight of glory that surpasses all comparison” when we look at what is not seen (2 Cor 4:17-18). Every trip to the treatment center. Every mountain of papers and signed checks. Every sleepless night taking care of sick children. Surrendered before Him, everything is significant in the kingdom of heaven.
7. Trials remind us that the earth is not our true home
We long for the presence of God in the midst of loneliness. Tears move our hearts to a place where “there will be no death, no more mourning, no crying, no pain” (Rev 21:4). Sick bodies eagerly await the arrival of new bodies. Death makes us want the resurrection. These tests remind us that this earth is not our true home. They increase our hunger for heaven.
8. Trials test and strengthen our faith
Tests prove the authenticity of our faith, which fills our hearts with the joyful assurance of our salvation and “results in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:7). This strengthening of our faith motivates us to strip ourselves “also of all weight and of the sin that so easily engulfs us”, and to run “with patience the race that lies ahead of us, fixing our eyes on Jesus… who for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (Heb 12:1-2).
God is doing something through your trials
Even knowing all the good that our trials produce, I doubt we would intentionally choose suffering for ourselves or those we love. But God is wiser than us. His ways are higher than our ways (Is 55:9), and He uses our trials for His visible and unseen purposes in our lives.
You may not know what God is doing in a particular trial, but given the many options presented in Scripture, you can know that He is doing something. Given how much He loves you, you can know that it is for your eternal good. This is a good reason why we can rejoice.
Originally posted on . Translated by Lauren Charruf Morris.