One of the questions I get asked a lot from people is if God loves us why do bad things happen to us; there are four reasons.

1. God designed life to have trials as a normal part of everyone’s life so that we will grow in character; without trials, there is no growth.

James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Why did Jesus suffer and have trials? There are three reasons. Reason number one, although He was God, He still had to grow in character. He was born into the world just like us, with no character. As James and Hebrews mention, to be made perfect means to be made mature in character.

Hebrews 5:8-9 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.

We can influence the amount and severity of the trials we experience. We have our foot on the gas peddle of life, determining how much and how hard our trials will be. How much we grow from our trials determines how much we must endure. The more we grow, the fewer trials we need; the less we grow, the more trials we need. The determining factor is how much we rejoice while experiencing trials; the more we rejoice because we trust God, the more we will grow from those trials; the more we grumble about our trials, the less we will grow.

It is very simple: God has goals, one of which is to make us like Jesus in character, and His primary tool is trials. It is like a football coach training his players to be good by having them run, jump, and lift weights.

A few days ago, I went out to get in my pickup, and a tire was flat. I was headed to a meeting, and I was going to be late. One of the commitments I make every morning in my “Commitment Prayer” is, “Today, Lord, I will rejoice about everything and grumble about nothing.” So, I said, “Thank You, Lord, for loving me so much that You aren’t going to leave me as a baby in character, but You are going to make me like Jesus.” I hoped it was a slow leak, so I pulled the air hose from my compressor over to it, blew up the tire, and drove to church. I wasn’t even late for my meeting. I was at the church for a couple of hours, and the tire was about half flat, so I filled it again using the church’s air compressor, drove to Les Schwab’s, and had it fixed for free.

That was an easy trial, and we all will have many that are much more severe than a flat tire on a busy day, but we manage them the same. Rejoice always about everything and grumble about nothing.

We will talk about the other reasons for trials tomorrow.