Four Truths to Remember in Trials

To live in this world is to suffer. As Job noted, “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). You know that. You know the suffering of broken cars, broken bodies, and broken relationships. And you feel the burden of that brokenness; sometimes it is heavy, other times lighter, but it is always present.

Theodore Cuyler captured the weight of the trials we endure when he wrote, “We often sink very low under the weight of sorrows. Sudden disappointments can carry us, in an hour, from the heights down to the very depths. Props that we leaned upon are stricken away. What God means by it very often is just to bring us down to ‘the everlasting arms’. We did not feel our need of them before.”

What shall we think about our trials and the suffering we endure? In his final letter (as he was anticipating martyrdom), the apostle Paul reminds us of at least four realities to contemplate when we are walking through the valleys of trial.

God Is Trustworthy in the Trial

“For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). 

Frequently (usually?) we will not be able to see the end of the trial. But we can fix our eyes on the God of the trial. And He is faithful to protect us. Sometimes He is faithful to protect us in the trial (like Daniel in the lion’s den). Sometimes He is faithful to relieve us of the trial—and even restore what was lost (like Job at the end of his suffering). And sometimes He is faithful to take us to glory through the trial (like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:18). Whatever means He uses, we can trust that all that is happening is fully within His sovereign plan and control.

There Is Eternal Reward for Persevering in the Trial

“…in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).

There is a temptation to diminish the value of what is ahead. Like a hungry man that fills his stomach with peanut butter sandwiches because he is hungry rather than waiting for the grilled rib eye steak that is two hours away, we are prone to lament our immediate problems too strongly and ignore the future blessings too greatly. A transformative day is coming when all the burdens we are currently bearing will then be considered by us to have been momentary (of the briefest duration compared to the length of eternity) and light (of the smallest weight compared to the delight of glory; 2 Corinthians 4:17). We do well to remember what is ahead for us when we endure.

Salvation May Come as a Result of the Trial

“For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (2 Timothy 2:10).

Our trials are not just for us. Our trials are for others so that they might observe our dependence on Christ, be encouraged, and turn to Him in faith. At times the Lord may keep us under our weights as a testimony to those who observe our faithfulness (which was Job’s story).

Trials Are Normal

“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). 

We think trials are abnormal. They are not. The consistent testimony of God’s Word is that God’s people will suffer. When we recognize the normalcy of our burdens (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13), we will be strengthened to depend on His sufficient grace to bear us through the trial.

One temptation when under the load of affliction is to believe that God is absent, that our suffering is vain and valueless, that nothing good will come from it, and that our weight is extraordinarily unusual. What we need in that moment is to remember the truths that God is ever trustworthy, there will be benefit from the trial, even salvation may come from it, and whatever my circumstance, it is not unusual.

This article first appeared on Words of Grace.