Word For The Day: Growing Through Adversity

I have been sharing with you thoughts from a helpful book by Jerry Bridges: Trusting God Even When Life Hurts. This week lets talk about how to grow through adversity.

We have learned that when difficulty comes, we must recognize that it comes from God’s sovereign hand. God uses adversity to teach us, and we are responsible for learning from it! How can we learn from adversity?

1. Submit to it. This is a voluntary submission, not from hopelessness, but like a patient on the operating table submitting to the surgeon’s skilled hand as he wields the knife.

1 Peter 5:6-7
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

2. Apply God’s Word to the situation. Ask God to bring your attention to Scriptures that speak to your circumstance. I often find this kind of help in the Psalms. It is in the crisis that Scripture becomes real to us; it will bring clarity to the situation, give us direction, and move the truth from our head to our heart. Martin Luther said, “Were it not for tribulation, I should not understand the Scriptures.”

Psalm 119:105,107
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
107 I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O Lord, according to your word!

3. Remember it. We are so quick to forget in the good times, the things God taught us in the bad. God wants us to do more than endure the adversity or find comfort during it. God wants us to remember them and grow in our faith and obedience.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3
2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna… that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Friends, I pray that you sense God’s presence with you in whatever adversity you are going through. Take courage knowing that God is working in you, to will and do His good pleasure. He works through adversity, so submit to Him, run to the Scriptures, and remember the lessons you have learned.

Have a great Tuesday! Don’t forget to come over for the Connection Group this Thursday. During this time of Corona restrictions, we are gathering at the church from 18:30-19:30! Come enjoy awesome fellowship and edifying discussions as we study what it means to be a Gospel-Centered Community.

Pastor Phil