Adversities and their purpose in our lives

Life is not a road of roses alone, there are thorns that accompany the roses because the beauty of roses cannot be complete without thorns. This is why we must learn to discipline ourselves to embrace challenges and unfavorable circumstances as they come. We must not allow them to overcome us. The psalmist said, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”… The key word here is to “walk through”. We are supposed to walk through not to camp in our troubles knowing that no matter how dark the night is, it must surely dawn… Night will always precede the morning.

Israel, the Lord who created you says, “Do not be afraid—I will save you. I have called you by name—you are mine. When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you ~ Isaiah 43:1-2 GNT

This scripture gives us a clear picture of what to expect in this life. No matter who you are, as long as you are walking the streets of this world, there will always be challenges and tough situations. I am not telling you this to dampen your spirit, but to prepare you for what lies ahead of your journey. It won’t be easy, but it doesn’t also mean that it’s impossible. What will make a difference is your ability to endure and overcome it all, as Robert Liardon has noted;

“Some people want to go over the mountain. Some want to go under it. Others want to go around it, but God has called us to go through it. What makes you strong is drilling through something. The Lord does not want us to run from what we have to deal with, because whatever we run from will one day own us”.

The solution doesn’t lie in our running away from challenges and difficult issues that we face in life, but in facing and overcoming them. 2 Peter 2:19b tells us that we are slaves of anything that has conquered us; while Romans 8:37 tells us that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. This means that adversities should never overpower us, no matter how tough and challenging they are, rather, we should overcome them. Isn’t it amazing that God promises to be with us in the fire and mighty waters to help and deliver us? This means that they will be there, but we aren’t helpless when it comes to them. Christ is the strength we must lean on. Moreover, the Bible says that “we know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Adversities come into our lives for our own good and one of the good they do is to toughen and make us tenacious for the journey ahead of us.

Paul is one man who went through so much in his life as an apostle and for the sake of the Gospel. He wrote some of his best works in prison. At some point he wrote:

We are often troubled, but not crushed; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair; there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed ~ 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 GNT

I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often. Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water. In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from my own people and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends. There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing. And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches ~ 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 GNT

One amazing thing we need to learn and understand is that going through challenges and hardships is not an indication that God is absent, on the contrary, He is always there.

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you ~ Isaiah 43:1-2 ESV

At one point, Jesus was sailing along with His disciples and the sea was stormy. It was so bad that it almost wrecked their boat, yet Jesus was right there with them. Paul, the apostle, also found himself in the midst of a stormy sea, but God was with him. This means that the presence of adversities does not signify the absence of God. It doesn’t even mean that we are outside God’s will or that He has left us. In most cases, God takes us through tough times to teach us about Him, prepare us for the next level, to make us more like His Son Jesus or to expose what’s in our hearts.

Remember how the Lord your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past forty years, sending hardships to test you, so that he might know what you intended to do and whether you would obey his commands. He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that you must not depend on bread alone to sustain you, but on everything that the Lord says….  In the desert he gave you manna to eat, food that your ancestors had never eaten. He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end he could bless you with good things ~ Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 16 GNT

In the above scripture, God deliberately led the children of Israel through the desert just to test them and to know what was in their hearts. He made them go hungry, thirsty and through a trackless desert because He needed to teach them how to depend on Him. God’s lessons are not learned through theory, but through experience. It may be that sometimes we don’t understand why we have to go through tough times and issues in our lives, but God always has a purpose for everything we go through.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”~ John 16:33 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers ~ Romans 8:28-29 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing ~ James 1:2-4 ESV

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us ~ Romans 5:3-5 ESV

We also need to understand that adversities do not come into our lives to break us. Neither do they come to derail our dreams and aspirations. They may be a comma in the sentence of our lives, but they should never be a full stop. You should never give up because of the tough times that come your way. Though some adversities can be extremely demoralizing, you must keep pushing because you have in you what it takes to thrive. Your potential to rise above the odds is immense.

Adversities can break you, but only if you permit it. In the face of adversities, keep your faith and hope alive knowing that it’s only God who can help you out. Many have been where you are now. They made it, and they made it big. You can make it too.