“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” is an African proverb quoted by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt, reminding us that the “bumps” of life are what make us compassionate, resilient, and dynamic. If we have the right perspective, adversity can have many positive effects on us.
When adversity strikes, our true spiritual maturity comes to the surface, and our feelings about God come out in the questions we ask, the attitudes we have, and the actions we take. This tells us a lot about what we really believe, and no doubt that is why God allows adversity to strike us from time to time: Adversity displays the accurate measure of our growth and the true nature of our relationship with Him. It can make us stronger, help us to develop new perspectives, and give us greater appreciation for what we have.
When facing a difficult situation, we should remember that it may be just what we need to help us reach our full potential. If we assume our trial is an unfair judgment from God, it indicates that we thought we were in a quid pro quo relationship with Him—based on our “rights” rather than on His grace. As we recognize and correct that attitude, the adversity can develop our character and help us draw closer to God.
When we search Scripture for encouragement in times of adversity, we find this reality: adversity is inevitable, invaluable, and not invincible. Let’s explore each of these points and see the benefits adversity can bring us.
Adversity Is Inevitable
Jesus, in Luke’s gospel, taught, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23–24). We are subjected to adversity daily, and we must accommodate ourselves to it and accept the will of God in it as we learn to endure.
Jesus, during the Sermon on the Mount, essentially said that we are to be at His sovereign disposal—that all who live a godly life in Christ will suffer. “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13–14). Our duty as His disciples is to take up our cross. Struggle builds strength in the same manner that muscle size increases when challenged by resistance.
Jesus graciously prepared us in advance to expect adversity, and He told us how to meet it. “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Our position as sheep is often precarious and uncomfortable. Christ reminds us, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Scripture plainly and fully informs us that adversity is inevitable, but we need not let this discourage us, because…
Adversity Is Invaluable
The best things in life sometimes emerge out of suffering. Before flowers can beautify our gardens, we must break up soil and pull weeds. Before the body can enjoy fitness, it must apply the labor of exercise. Before graduation, one must undertake years of study.
Adversity is invaluable to building godly character: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (Psalm 119:71). And adversity not only helps us to learn God’s word, but also to obey it: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word” (Psalm 119:67).
God will permit trouble in our lives to draw us back to Him. King David recognized this when he wrote, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; do not forsake the works of Your hands” (Psalm 138:7–8). It is in the midst of calamity that God revives us.
The Apostle Peter shows us some of the remarkable results God can bring out of suffering. “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you” (1 Peter 5:10). We are to live with the understanding that, for God’s purposes to be realized in the future, some adversity must occur in the present. God uses adversity to bring us to maturity and to fully equip us as His soldiers. “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:5).
Job, who went through anguish that most of us can scarcely imagine, gives us a wonderful illustration of the spiritually transformative power of suffering. “He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
If you were to visit a gold mine, you would likely notice small cars on tracks, loaded with stones, emerging from an opening on the hillside. The stones would be blasted, crushed, pulverized, and subjected to various chemicals. Tiny particles of gold would be separated from the rock and then submitted to fierce fires in the refining furnace. Later, the molten, shining gold would be poured into bricks worth thousands of dollars each. But these bricks would not yet be completely purified, as they would still need to endure more refining fires before emerging as pure gold.
Suppose that those stones in the mine could think and speak. They might say something like, “Why do I have to be removed from my place to be pounded, pulverized, washed in biting chemicals, and finally submitted to fiery furnaces?”
We could reply, “What use are you buried there beneath tons of debris? You have within you that which is exceedingly valuable, useful, and beautiful. Through this process of seeming destruction, carefully devised by an intelligence you cannot imagine, you can be separated from the impurities that keep you from the usefulness, beauty, and purity that might be yours.”
Though none of us would rather sit dormant and useless as the dull gray stones in the mine, we tend to fear the necessary suffering that God uses to polish and reveal the value that He sees in us. Should we not rather praise God that He has “blasted” us with the Gospel, the dynamite of God for our salvation? From our carnal state, He has begun the process of purification and refining so we may come forth as pure gold.
Adversity is invaluable to the development of our godly conduct. And we must never forget to compare the value of trials in this life to their reward in the Kingdom of God. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7).
Yes, adversity is invaluable!
Adversity Is Not Invincible
In life’s fight against adversities, Christ’s servants suffer the loss of no essential thing. As grain loses only the useless chaff by being beaten, so we lose only our hindrances and impurities by the refining processes of adversity—faith is strengthened, love is expanded, experience is deepened, and knowledge is increased.
We thus can have a weapon against adversity put into our hands by Christ Himself. That weapon in this unceasing fight against the troubles of life is found in one word that Scripture so often couples with victory over suffering: That secret weapon is rejoicing (Nehemiah 8:10). But notice that this rejoicing is not the mere pumped-up exuberance that the world calls joy. It is the joy of the Lord—a joy from God, because of God, and in God.
“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:12–13). The joy that comes in trials is the joy that is grounded in our knowledge of the glory we now only see “in a mirror, dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The Apostle James, a half-brother of Jesus, knew he was writing to brethren experiencing trials, and he wanted to assure them that their trials would lead them to dedicate their lives more fully to Jesus Christ. “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (James 1:2)! Christian joy is not incompatible with sorrow. We mourn the effects of sin on the world, but we can nevertheless rejoice that sin will not have the last word—that Jesus will set creation free from its bondage to corruption (Romans 8:18–23).
Patient endurance is a mark of a person who is “perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:4), being conformed to the image of Christ. Faith is tested through trials, not produced by them—it “comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). This gives us resolve not to neglect our Bible study, as God’s inspired word reveals the advantages of adversity: Out of Joseph’s imprisonment came the preservation of a nation, out of Paul’s chains flowed the prison epistles, and out of John’s exile emerged the book of Revelation, to name just a few examples.
Like these men, if we trust the God of the Bible during the “ups and downs” of life, we will find that although adversity is inevitable, it is invaluable and it is not invincible. We truly are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).