5 Reasons for Hard Times (part 1)

Oftentimes, the Gospel is advertised as a ticket out of hard times.

We may say things like, "If you believe in God, He will heal your body." Or, "If you have enough faith, God will take away your financial struggles." 

Some say that God wants you to chase your dreams. While He often does use our desires for His glory, our number one goal should be to chase Jesus.Whatever gets us to that end, we can be willing to endure for the sake of worshiping, enjoying, and exemplifying Christ. After all, I don't think it was Paul's dream to go to prison. However, he learned to be content in all circumstances (Philippians 4:11) through the joy that Christ brings.

Although we serve a healing, delivering, all-powerful God, we aren't promised that life will be a bed of roses.

In fact, quite the opposite is true.

The Bible promises hardship (see John 16:33, Hebrews 12:5-8). However, there is hope.

One thing that you won't hear me say is that God will take away your financial troubles, sicknesses, and other tribulations in this life. But, thankfully for us, this life isn't the end of the story.

All day, every day, we can choose to root ourselves so deeply in Christ that we see everything else as it truly is - temporary. Our trials? Temporary. Our earthly prizes and achievements? Temporary. We should value Christ so much that even earthly pleasures are counted as loss. This is what it means to live with an eternal perspective.

Below, I want to share five reasons that God may allow hardships in our lives.

#1: This Hardship is an Answer to your Prayer

What?! How is this difficulty an answer to prayer? I never prayed for this!

It's true. You may not have prayed for this specific difficulty, but chances are, you've prayed to grow closer to God. You've probably prayed for patience, contentment, or holiness. As a result, here you are with a situation forcing you to grow in these areas.

This reminds me of a hymn titled, "I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow". The first verse reads:

I asked the Lord that I might grow

In faith and love and ev’ry grace,

Might more of His salvation know,

And seek more earnestly His face.

What a great prayer! We'd all love to grow in faith, love, and grace. However, the writer of this hymn expected this growth to come 'in some favored hour' when all was going his way. Instead, trials pelted afflictions at his soul. Heartbreak threw him to the ground, where he found himself on his knees. He asks the Lord why He would allow this. God replied, saying that He was using this hardship to turn him back to Him. 

The storms that flung the writer to and fro forced him to cling to his Anchor. He grew closer to God in a way he wouldn't have otherwise. The Bible mentions this form of growth frequently (James 1:2-4, 2 Cor. 12:10, 1 Peter 5:9-10, Rom. 8:28). I'm not negating or minimizing the tragedies that we go through. However, for the sake of your joy, I will say this: hardships aren't a break from serving God. We are still called to seek Him, not just what He can do for our situation. Despite our circumstances, we are still called to pursue holiness (Romans 12:11-12). 

      

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"Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible, to drive us to our knees." - J.C. Ryle                    
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#2. God is humbling you  

The truth is, we could all use some more humility in our lives. One of the ways God shows us who we really are is by showing us how dependent we are on Him. When everything is going well in our lives, we can sometimes think that we're the ones keeping things in check. We might think, "I'm doing much better financially because I worked so hard and earned that promotion." It's moments like this that we forget Who's really in control of our situations. It was God who kept us healthy so we could go to that job every day. God was the One Who gave us the will to work hard. Our abilities come from Him. Our talents come from Him. Our good character traits (such as work ethic) come from Him. And yet, we can sometimes pride ourselves on our accomplishments. 

Through life's most unexpected curve-balls, God shows us Who's really in control of our situations. And this should comfort us. It's amazing how we sometimes trust our limited, sinful, human selves more than the all-knowing, righteous, loving, sovereign God.

(Stay tuned for part two of this series on, '5 Reasons for Hard Times')