You can’t grow muscles without exercise. You can’t grow your intellect without study. All growth requires resistance. We have to learn to see things as they really are, through Kingdom eyes, and understand that hardship isn’t just hard—it is also the opportunity to overcome, to grow, and to cultivate the Kingdom in us.
The new you, remade and reformed into the image of your Creator, only emerges as you’re sanctified though all the hard stuff. Which means we need to change our perspective on hardship, difficulty, and sorrow.
When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
James 1.2-4
Adapted from Why God Died, previously called Dying for a Fix