Tribulation brings Perseverance

Some faulty teaching in the world is that if you are a Christian and you think all good thoughts then nothing bad will ever happen to you.  Imagine how Christians feel who have sought to be good in everything that they do and always think positive thoughts but are still hit with a hopeless situation.  God never promises us that we will not endure anything in fact He says this

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:3-4

In short it says that you will go through trails and tribulations and not only will you go through them but these trails are somehow good for you because when you go through then you will become a better person in the end.

I often go back and forth with this aspect with God.  I tell God that I do not understand why things have to be so hard.  And if He knows all things why can He just know that whatever trail He is thinking about putting me though that I will pass, and since He knows I will pass then he can just forgo putting me through anything.

Sounds good in theory, but sad to say it simply does not work like that.  Even though God knows weather you will past or fail the test sometimes you have to go through the test so that you know God better and it can strengthen your faith.

This may sound confusing but let me explain.  If you are dead broke and have no way of getting money and no one to ask.  You pray to God and He provided the money for you , does this not build your faith in God?


Further, it is not God who is hurting us but it is the devil.  You see sometimes we think of the devil as a red beast with horns and a tail.  But the devil is so much smarter than you think.  He has been here before man kind.  He knows man, he knows you.  He knows how to get you were it hurts and make you doubt God.

He can make you think the reason why bad things are happening to you is because God is somehow mad at you.  The devil is bound to this world and unfortunate for us that he he has free reign to do to us what he wants, provided that God allows it.

It is not that God wants us to fail, but God wants to see if you are who you say you are.  Meaning that when things hit the fan will you still love him and praise his name.  Will you?

I often read the book of Job.  The devil had to come to God for permission to wreck havoc in Job’s life.  He insisted that Job would surely curse God’s name if everything he had was take away.  And so God allowed this.

As I read the book of Job I never realized how theatrical Job was.  I mean really.  I get that he went through a lot and he wanted to be put out of his pain and he wanted to die, but I think it went beyond this.

If Job wanted to just die, then why did he not say God I want to die, and lay there.  But instead he went on for verse after verse after verse, cursing the day he was born, cursing the day he came from his mothers womb, asking God why he had created him just to go through pain, and so on and so forth.

In this verse I realize that Job just wanted to get God’s attention.  And how many times have you done the same?  How many time have you cried out to God and said anything and everything (good or bad) just so He can see that you are still here, and to express to him how you feel He has forgotten about you.

I know I have.  Often times when I am upset with God about something asking Him why, I go on and on getting more dramatic as the time goes by. I can see myself as any Earthy child.  One who is acting out just to get attention from a parent.  This is how I see Job.


Job was so use to God being there for him that when things went array he felt that God has left him, thus the academy winning performance to remind God about his suffering.  And then God said basically, because he was God he could do whatever he wanted to do and told Job to stop complaining.

If I were Job I think I would have been offended.  But God knew that Job suffering was to build his faith in God even though it did not seem like it to Job.  And God knew that at the end of the storm that Job would come out even more blessed than he had been before.  The only thing Job had to do was just get though it.

I am convinced that God is saying these things to many of us.  He sees our pain, struggle, hardship, crying, and all the rest.  We do not hear him answer in the way that we like, but he is telling us to keep going and to just get through it.  This is against our human nature because we want to hear, the bad times are over.  You are never going to go through anything bad ever again.

But sometimes bad thing hit us back to back to back to back to back and it just won’t let up.  The only thing you can do is get through it and believe that God will get you through it.  And more often times then not, once we are through it, we can see why we had to go through what we had to go through and we are stronger in the end.