We all have various trials, crisis events, and suffering in our lives. None of us like or enjoy them, and many of us cry out with Job, “Why?”

The first reason God causes or allows trials is to develop the character of Christ in us. Jesus had to suffer to build His character, and so do we. Everyone goes through these trials; such is life.

The second reason for our trials is so that we can help, encourage, and comfort others who will go through the same problems in the future. God’s goal here is to make His Bride, the church, unified, loving, and healthy. Our hard life experiences pull us together.

The third reason motivates us to seek God’s strength, comfort, peace, joy, and wisdom to navigate life successfully. When everything is going well, our natural tendency is to live in our own strength and wisdom.

God has goals for our lives as he guides us through life’s boot camp, but those goals will not be realized if we grumble, get bitter, and blame others.

The fourth reason for trials is to discipline us for sin. Our responsibility here is to examine our lives, confess our sins, and repent of them. It is a pretty simple reason, and we should have no trouble recognizing it if we are honest with ourselves. If we hit our thumb with a hammer, we have no difficulty recognizing why our thumb hurts.

Hebrews 12:5-6; 10-11. have you forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

One of the most important things as we live life is to never be the judge for why someone else is going through a particular trial. Job’s friends got in trouble with God because they did that. Our responsibility is to pray for others, encourage them, help them, and comfort them.

Go back and reread the past three blogs with this one. Don’t be one of those people who wastes his trials by grumbling, feeling sorry for yourself, getting bitter, getting angry, and blaming others. God is a perfectly loving God who is molding us into a perfect person in the image of Jesus. The main thing for us to do is trust Him.