Life can feel like one challenge after another. Some days it’s a small bump, other days it’s a full-on mountain. Whether these moments strengthen or shake us depends on how we see adversity—and how we respond.
James challenges us with a surprising perspective:
“Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2).
Why? Because trials are often where God does His deepest work. Growth, maturity, and resilience are rarely forged in comfort—they’re born in pressure. If we lean in, hardship becomes a refining fire, not just a painful season.
Moses said it plainly in Psalm 90:10:
“The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”
Life is short. And hard. But every difficulty is an opportunity—to deepen our faith, build spiritual strength, and discover purpose in the middle of the pain.
Take David. In 1 Samuel 30, he returned from battle to find
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He wants to break you out of the prison of a closed-system mindset, freeing you toperceive and rely upon the resources of heaven. This is often a painful and scaryprocess, and it seems new and insurmountable each time it occurs. The faith-fruit, however, that grows through such trials is incredible and expansive.  Paul wanted the believers in Corinth to know just how stretching such an experience was for him, and how prayer and partnership play a crucial role in heavenly faith breakthrough. He wrote,
