We’ve all had trials in our lives, tough times where a lot of us have probably asked…why me? Why is this happening to me?? Or, why is this happening to the person that I love? I know I have asked that of God many times in my life. We tend, as humans, to focus on the trial alone and wonder why. Why me?

But…if we could pause, and put on our “spiritual goggles” for a moment, if we could look beyond the trial and peek into the spiritual realm, maybe we could get a better understanding. Isn’t that the reason we ask God “why”? We desire understanding. We want Him to explain things to us. Well, fortunately He’s given us His Word, and if we look into what it has to say about trials in our lives, maybe we could gain some spiritual insight and peace as we walk through difficult times. Maybe, we could even experience joy and rejoice in Christ when things are unexplainably hard.

These passages are some of my favorites, and they can help us to see beyond the trial & get a glimpse into what God sees and what He wants us to gain…how He wants us to grow from hard times.

James 1:2 says this- “Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing (or proving) of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

Romans 5:3-5 says- “And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 …these verses daily got me through a very dark time that I walked through. They say, “Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Great joy…in trials? Why & how can we have joy and rejoice in the various trials that we encounter in this life?

Let’s pull a few things out of these verses…

The testing of your faith produces endurance.

Endurance does a work in us-making us mature and complete as a Christ-follower, lacking nothing. We lack nothing because Jesus lacks nothing and gives us everything that we need. When we lean into Him in our trials, we mature in our faith because we see that He always gives us exactly what we need to endure.

Endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope…hope that does not disappoint. Why? Because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom He gave to us when we put our faith in His Son Jesus. The perfect love of God never disappoints. Even though things on earth may not work out as we “hope”…ultimately our hope is in Christ, in eternity with Him, not in the temporary, earthly things. That is the hope we have to ultimately lean into, and our eternal hope is secure in Christ.

When we continue to walk with Christ through trials, no matter what is going on in the earthly realm…sickness, struggles, etc., He renews our inner person daily as we continue to endure and abide in Him.

Our “momentary, light affliction” is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.

Read those words again. Absolutely incomparable…eternal weight of glory. We have no way of knowing…there is nothing on earth that can even be compared to…the weight of glory that eternity with Jesus holds. We cannot even comprehend it.

And finally, what we can physically see is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

In order to make it to the ultimate finish line in this race of life…to the absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory…living eternally complete in the glorious presence of Christ, we are going to need some serious endurance while we’re here on earth. We are promised trials and hard times. In John 16:33 Jesus says, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus reminds us that in the middle of our earthly troubles, our peace rests in Him alone. When we look at the trials, the “waves”…we sink…we sink into depression, despair, anxiety, hopelessness. Things look out of control, dark and chaotic. But when we keep our eyes on Him, He gives us peace in the storm. He gives us a reason to rejoice, He gives us the strength and endurance to persevere. He even gives us joy…not circumstantial happiness but deep and unshakeable joy. As we continue to trust in Him and see His faithfulness over time, we mature in our relationship with Him, which grows and improves our character. We begin to realize, as we mature, that our hope is not in the outcome of a situation…how we think it should look…but in the overwhelming love of our God and our hope of eternity with Him.

In these verses, “endurance” carries a lot of weight. It can also be defined as steadfastness, constancy, patient enduring, and perseverance. It also says that endurance is the “characteristic of a man/woman who is not swerved from their deliberate purpose & loyalty to faith by even the greatest trials and sufferings”.

When I read the last part of that statement, the question arises…what is my deliberate purpose and what is my loyalty to my faith in Christ? How grounded am I in my belief and faith, in my trust in God…and what is my deliberate purpose? Will I be “swerved” from it when difficult times come? Is my deliberate purpose in life an eternal purpose…a relationship with Christ, spiritual growth, trust in God’s plan over mine, and living intentionally on earth with eternal hope in Him, or is it just wanting things to look the way that I think they should look in this temporary life? I have found that trials, if nothing else, show us that we are not in control of circumstances here on this earth. And when they come, we’re presented with this test: deep down, do we trust in God’s plan for us and for those around us??

1 Peter 1:6-7 says-“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

First I want to point out how he doesn’t make light of our human feelings. Trials grieve us.

So what is Peter referring to when he says “in this you rejoice”? In the previous verses he says, “According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…”.

Even though trials grieve us, we can still rejoice, and even have joy, in any circumstance because Jesus is our living hope. Because of Him we have an eternal inheritance that can not be taken away, no matter what happens here in our time on earth. When we lean into our faith and trust in Christ and the eternity that He’s guaranteed for us, we can praise in any situation, because we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will spend eternity with Him.

If we focus on the temporary suffering, we will drown in the darkness of it. If we focus on Christ, we can still praise Him in the pain.

Jesus knew the eternal joy that was to come. He had already experienced the glory of heaven before He came to earth, and because of that, He was able to endure the pain and suffering of the cross. He was able to endure all of the emotional and physical pain, because He knew that the eternal joy that was on the other side of the cross was worth the most unimaginable suffering on this earth.

Hebrews 12:2 says “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus endured earthly trials to show us that we can too. To show us that eternity is worth it.

Jesus, thank you for stepping out of glory & coming to this earth to rescue us…to give us an eternal hope with You. Strengthen us in our trials and help us to look beyond what is seen to what is unseen, so that we can be filled with joy that only comes from You in every circumstance. Help us to trust You, to grow in our relationship with You. You are the light in our darkest times and our anchor in the worst of storms. We praise You & thank You for never leaving us, and for giving us all that we need to endure in this life. May we not lose sight of the joy that is set before us, even in the hardest of times!! In Your precious name, Amen.

~Nicole