5 Ways to Find God’s Purpose in Life’s Trials

Life, per se, has a way of throwing random situations our way, both good and bad. Troubles seem to dog us, and trials are our constant diet. Psalm 90:10 points out that the 70 or 80 years of our life are nothing but trouble and sorrow. Unwise choices, other people’s actions and reactions, economic changes, environmental impacts, political upheavals, social responsibilities, and cultural demands all have a way of messing up our lives.

The natural questions that arise out of negative circumstances are: Isn’t God all-powerful and Sovereign enough to prevent disasters from happening to those who trust in Him? Why should He allow calamities and holocausts to take place? What is the purpose of and the reason for His seeming neglect of us in times of tragedy and woe?

Here are some pointers that can guide us.

God uses all of life’s happenings to:

Make us holy.

“Be ye holy as I am holy” is God’s repeated command from the Old Testament through the New Testament. God created and saved us to be like Him, holy and blameless, without spot or wrinkle, able to stand in His glorious presence, without shame. One cannot see God without holiness, and so He uses every circumstance in our lives to discipline us so that we partake of His holiness.

God led Israel through the wilderness to humble and test them so they would know what was in their hearts and whether or not they would keep His commands. God doesn’t waste our sorrows or our sufferings but uses them to discipline us so that they will produce a harvest of righteousness and peace in us!

The enemy of our souls uses everything to trigger our flesh, destroy our holiness, and shake our trust in God. I Corinthians 10:13 declares that God is faithful not to let us be tried beyond our ability and will find a way to escape so that we’re able to endure it. God seeks to use every situation in our daily existence to free us from the shackles of sin and bondage progressively.

God takes the ups and downs of our lives and brings forth goodness out of them all!

Help us be a comfort.

II Corinthians 1:4-5 states that God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we receive from God. Not every trial, testing or trouble is the result of sin. Often, God takes us through negative situations to help us develop the acumen to serve others. God trains and equips us with the skills required to heal and help a hurting world.

As disciples and followers of Christ, we are the instruments of His care in the communities we’re placed in. We’re called to set the captives free, give sight to the blind, cause the lame to walk, and make the deaf to hear. As His ambassadors, we’ve to share God’s way of reconciliation with those around us. So, we need to be both relevant and revelational in word and deed.

God uses our daily life situations to endow and train us with different gifts and abilities to impact the nations!

Showcase His glory.

In Exodus, we see that God sent Moses to confront Pharaoh and ask him to set the people of Israel free. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he wouldn’t let the people go easily.

Then, through many signs and wonders, He redeemed Israel with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. At the Red Sea, God gained glory for Himself by burying Pharaoh’s army in the waters and making the Egyptians acknowledge He was Lord.

Jesus went late in the evening when He heard Lazarus was sick. He tarried so that His raising of Lazarus from the dead would show God’s glory to those around him.

Often, God seems deaf to our cries and delays in answering our calls. We tend to think that God doesn’t love us or doesn’t care for us. Yet this is for His glory, that His name may be known, and not for any harm.

We need to understand that God exhibits His glory to others through our lives and learn to trust Him fully in times of trouble, especially when He seems silent!

Display His power and majesty.

Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that we have treasure in jars of clay to show that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. God allows us to be confronted and challenged by our flaws. Our faults and defaults hamper and hinder us, making us mourn our deficiencies. We see the evilness of our flesh and the deceitfulness of our hearts and are appalled by it. Taken aback at our sinfulness, we fall on our faces before Him.

However, despite our weaknesses, He uses us to reveal His power, and His strength is made perfect only in weakness. Paul boasted more gladly about his weaknesses than his strengths; since then, Christ’s power has rested on him.

For Christ’s sake, we need to delight in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties since when we’re weak, then we’re strong. God delights in displaying His power and strength through frail human vessels such as you and me!

Establish His rulership on earth.

God reigns in the affairs of men, the Bible says (Daniel 4:17), and is Lord of even godless nations (Psalm 47:8 MSG). Daniel was put in the lion’s den for choosing to worship God alone, while Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego were put in the fire for refusing to worship an idol. In both cases, God interfered and manifested His authority and control over what was happening in our world. He stepped in to shut the lions’ mouths and didn’t allow the fire even to singe the three young men.

God prepared and used Joseph as an alien to provide succor and preserve His people in a time of severe famine. He gave influence to Esther in a foreign land to change the course of history by preventing a holocaust of Israel.

Despite severe persecutions that lasted 300 years, God allowed His Church to flourish and His gospel to spread throughout the world.

God invades time and space to establish His kingdom and cause His will to be done on earth!

God’s plans are only to prosper us and never to harm or destroy us. He works all things – our weaknesses, our infirmities, our failings, and everything else – together for our good.

Beautifully, the hymn explains:

Our times are in Thy hand;

Why should we doubt or fear?

A father’s hand will never cause

His child a needless tear.

This should be our anchor, our strong defense, and our refuge when the enemy tells us that God is angry with us.

May we understand that God uses life’s circumstances to cleanse us, equip us, promote His glory, demonstrate His power, and introduce His authority into our lives.

May we, therefore, be still and know that He is God!

Taste and see that the Lord is good every time, any day!