Treating hardships as one-dimensional, one-size-fits-all occurrences that need to be prayed away ASAP is neither healthy nor holy. The biblical witness encourages us to view them as unique, layered, and existing for reasons we are often unable to understand. Our assignment is to, by faith, respond to them in a way that brings glory and honor to our Father. Here are a few models we have from Scripture of people doing just that.
—–Paul is in prison and doesn’t know if he will walk out or be carried out. His prayer is not for God to get him back to his happy place ASAP—rather he asks that “now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).
—–On another occasion, Paul has an issue he refers to as “a thorn in my flesh.” On three different occasions he pleads with God “to take it away from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8). Finally, he is told by God ‘that his circumstances are helping him to lean into Him and His power, so he should be content with that. Paul does just that. In fact, he says he has learned to “delight” in his situation because “when I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10).
—–James writes to displaced Jewish believers who are experiencing trials “of many kinds” (1:2). Apart from family and friends, they are in challenging new circumstances. Some are financially struggling (1:9 and probably among those who are not getting paid for the work they are doing 5:4). James tells them all to “consider it pure joy” and to seek wisdom (1:2,5). Paul speaks along the same lines to disciples in Rome not long before Nero comes to power (Romans 5:3-5).
You get the idea. The Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is full of teachings that not only concern how to respond to hardships but also provide us with examples of people doing just that. What should we take away from this?
1. We don’t always know what God’s will is for the hardships we or someone else is facing. And because that is true, we don’t always know what to pray for. (A little reflection on our ignorance this should yield a lot of humility). This also explains why the well-meaning default setting of praying that something ceases as soon as possible, misses the mark by assuming we understand something that we don’t (i.e., the purpose of the hardship). What is the alternative? What if we just asked God to “bless” people in such situations—trusting that He is familiar with the meaningful specifics on how to do that?
2. Let’s accept that hardships are normative and pursue joy rather than happiness. Happiness is based on the right happenings of life. There’s nothing wrong with being happy—it’s just not sustainable because things don’t always go our way. Our culture is fixated with happiness, but disciples should know that in Christ we have something better. Joy is independent of circumstances and based on a relationship with Jesus. Joy will get you through hardships/trials long after happiness has left the building.
3. We must make sure we don’t minimize those with hardships by viewing or treating them as being on the sidelines while we’re out on the playing field. Where do we get an idea like this? Was Job on the sidelines? Joseph? David? Elijah? Our Lord? If anything should be clear, it is that people with hardships are center stage and have opportunities available to them that don’t exist for the rest of us. We’d be better making sure enfeebled thinking about hardship doesn’t put us on the sidelines.
4. Let’s make it our goal to seek His kingdom rather than our own. Look, God gave us all a will and there’s nothing wrong (and plenty that’s healthy) about expressing our desires to our Father. But in the end, we glorify Him not by pursing our kingdom (reign), but His. This was true for the Christ and it’s true for all who follow Him.
5. Let’s pray that God will help us use our circumstances to His glory. And with this we’re back to James 1 and the seeking of wisdom. In the context, James isn’t speaking about the pursuit of wisdom in general—he’s talking about the wisdom needed to navigate their hardships. This is always a good thing to pray for!
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 