How Does God Use Adversity?

Bethel Mennonite Church – Gladys VA

When we face difficulty, we ask why God allows misfortune in my life. A better question would be, how does God want to use adversity in my life? What would He like to accomplish?

Misfortune is the wrong word to use because it is too early to tell. Is God present and active in our difficulties or is he the cause of them? Heb. 11:7; I Pet. 1:7. We tend to think of God in ways: He has a perfect will and He has a permissive will. When we look at life by faith, we see that God is in it, that God has good intentions, that God is refining us, that God’s goal is our sanctification.

How does God refine us? Not just by sermons but also by the people around us and the circumstances of our lives.

John 15:1ff; Heb. 12: We are made perfect through suffering if we yield ourselves and the difficult thing to God. That is when he blesses us. Joseph had favor everywhere he went. Job suffered great losses and his visitors caused him more difficulty than his original losses. Don’t resist what God wants to accomplish. God is not punishing for wrong; He is seeking to grow us. We do not need to prove ourselves. We don’t necessarily cause our difficulties, but we do choose how we respond.

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