Rejoicing in Hardship

Trials are often times viewed as a bad thing. Many times we complain, asking, even begging at times, for God to take away these hardships. "What happened to the good times?" I don't need these trials to learn!" "I can learn without these hardships!"

"I want out!"


I have not met a single person who hasn't gone through a trial of some sort that they wanted out of. There is nothing wrong with wanting out of hardships. The problem comes when we insist on getting out of them. You see, Christ takes us through hardships because sometimes that's the only we are able to grow and develop. I know that is true for myself. I have been told a number of times that "If you want to grow, take the harder rout. Don't take the easy way out, embrace hardships and God will reveal Himself to you."

This is what Paul had to say about hardships...

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:1-5

Paul, a man who had a life full of trials and suffering, said to "rejoice in our sufferings"! Wow! This man was shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, thrown in prison, all numerous times, and he still rejoices in his sufferings! You know why he was able to rejoice through everything he went through? I'll tell you in a few minutes...

Jesus, when he was in the garden, knowing what he was about to go through, said in his prayer to our Father in Heaven " not my will but Yours be done." Luke 22:42 Can you imagine? Jesus knew everything that He was about to go through! The beatings, the scourge's, the whippings, the cursings... He knew it all. Physical and psychological, not to mention that excruciatingly painful death on the cross. All this Jesus knew beforehand, and he still was willing to go through with it, to say "not my will, but Yours be done." to trust that God knew what was best. He did this out of love to save you and me, that we might have eternal life with Him! W.O.W. That is love!

That is the reason that Paul was able to go through his trials. Because he knew that God loved him, and would not let anything happen to him that would not be for his good. Paul's joy came from knowing that he had eternal life in Christ.

You see, Christ grows us though hardships. We just have to be mature enough to ask "How can I grow through this trial?", "How is God using this challenge to further my faith?". It is okay to ask God to remove hardship, but we can not demand it to be removed, and if the trial persists we need to take joy in that God is using that experience to draw us closer to Him.


Will you take the easy way out, or will you endure through hardship and grow in the Lord?



Just a few thoughts...


Thanks for reading!


Benjamin