What is the Point of My Trials?

Romans 5:3-5:

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

The apostle Paul has given us a lot of hot takes, but in my opinion, this might be the wildest one.

As we read and reread this passage, something about the idea that we “glory” in our sufferings… just may not sit right with us. In fact, it seems to clash with the clear reality around us: the planet we live on is one that is full of violence, corruption, poverty, and disease — and those are all just the problems that exist on a large, worldwide scale.

What about the even deeper, personal sufferings that each person individually endures on a day-to-day basis? The dysfunctional family drama. The future-jeopardizing problems at school and work. The heartbreaking friendship and relationship issues. The embarrassing and seemingly-paralyzing financial troubles. The unwarranted emotional traumas that were forced on us, that we’re now left to try and heal from.

Come on, Paul… What could there possibly be to “glory” about in any of that?

The trials we suffer through in this life can leave us feeling dejected, and at times, utterly hopeless... and yet, Romans 5:3 insists that they are actually somehow glorious. We know God’s Word is the ultimate truth, so we must ask the Lord to help us view it as true — even while our experiences seems to say something very different.

Viewing our Sufferings in Light of Christ

How, then, can we shift the way that we view our sufferings? Perhaps by understanding this: while our sufferings may not feel very beneficial to us, God always uses them for the benefit of His kingdom and those around us.

When Jesus descended from Heaven and chose to dwell on this Earth, He didn’t have anything to gain for Himself by doing so. It didn’t benefit Him personally to walk this planet and endure all the pains, heartaches, and trials that we know came with it. He didn’t need to suffer in order to gain favor with the Father; His position as the Son of God was already secured.

Similarly, once we profess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, we are saved (Romans 10:9). We don’t need to do anything beyond that in order to receive salvation or favor with God. From the moment we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, our position as a child of God is already secured for all of eternity.

In that case, why should we as believers choose to accept — to even “glory” in — the sufferings we inevitably still encounter even after being saved? If we don’t need to do anything besides accept Jesus in order to be saved, why should we willingly sacrifice our time, desires, and resources at our own expense in order to let God use us?

For the same reason that Jesus did.

Why Did Jesus Choose to Suffer?

Again, Jesus knew His spot in Heaven and His identity as God were already His. He chose to still endure sufferings and unimaginable sacrifice not because He hoped to receive something through it, but because He hoped that we would receive something through it.

He foresaw that by living a life without sin, full of sacrificing His time to love others, He would be showing us that we, too, could choose not to be controlled by our own self-centered desires. Jesus understood that by being mistreated, rejected, and eventually murdered on the Cross by the very people He had loved, it would help us see that we are not alone when we face persecution and painful hardship. By losing His life and then resurrecting from the grave on the third day, He knew He would be showing us that death is not the end and that we do not have to live our Earthly lives here in fear of it. Jesus chose to suffer life here on Earth and then a brutal, unfair death not for His own gain, but for ours.

What Does that Mean for Us?

Usually when we encounter suffering and trials in our own lives, we hope that we’ll end up with something better because of it. In truth, just as He did with Jesus, God redeems our sufferings and struggles so that others may end up with something better because of it.

He allows trials to occur in our lives first and foremost to invite us into humility and dependence on Him alone. Our trials show us that there are things in our lives that we clearly cannot control — things that we need someone with more power than us to fix. Though God does not send our sufferings, He allows them as opportunities for us to trust Him through them. He then seeks to use our sufferings to soften our hearts, so that we can extend true empathy and selfless love to those around us, pointing them to the God who delivered us from our own fiery trials.

In my own life, I can look back at many of the trials God has allowed me to walk through and clearly see how He used them so that I would be able to genuinely understand, and then uplift, someone else who was going through the very same thing.

As we walk through this life, the issues we encounter can often feel not only unfair, but even pointless and unnecessary. However, we are assured by Scripture that that is not the case. God loves us so much that He works to make sure even the worst, most ugly parts of our lives here on Earth — our sufferings — won’t just be a waste. In the words of Joseph, decades after he had been betrayed by his own brothers and sold into Egyptian slavery, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20).

Why should we “take heart” in all of this?

Friends, as inhabitants of this imperfect world that is marred by sin, we can’t control or escape many of the things we suffer from. As Jesus informs us in John 16:33, in this world we will have trouble — not because God wants us to, but because of the fallen nature of the world we live in.

When the trials we’re enduring and the sacrifices we’re being called to make just don’t feel worth it, take heart in this. The enemy means our sufferings for evil, but our glorious God works to repurpose our sufferings for good. He chooses to work all things — even the bad things — together for our good, while we build His Kingdom here on Earth and introduce others to the only One Who can save their lives and souls. He wants to use us as believers to help spare the people around us of an eternity of never-ending trials and suffering in Hell.

Jesus invites us into the same humility He had during His life on Earth — a humility we can find only by going through trials. Rather than leaving us in hopeless, pointless troubles, He wants to use them to remind us of the perfect, Heavenly home that awaits us, and then lead us to invite others into that same eternity of joy and peace.

Though suffering is far from fun, we have assurance that God has incomprehensibly good purposes for our time here, as well as an imperishable inheritance waiting for us in Heaven. Despite how our present sufferings may cause us to feel, we are already on our way to a destination free from any trials or hardships, and part of our purpose for the time being is to help others get there, too. Even the worst, most trying troubles we face in this world will never change these good plans that God has for us — and that is something we certainly can glory in.