God Tests Your Faith through Difficulties
By Rick Warren

“You are temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials and temptations. This is no accident—it happens to prove your faith” (1 Peter 1:6-7 PHILLIPS).

Do you ever have days when nothing seems to go right?

I once heard about a guy whose apartment was flooded from a broken pipe in the upstairs apartment. His manager said to go rent a water vacuum, but he couldn’t—his car had a flat tire. He changed it and went inside again to phone a friend but got an electric shock from the phone. That startled him and he unintentionally ripped the phone off the wall. During that time, the water damage had jammed the door to his apartment, so a neighbor had to kick down the apartment door. While all this was going on, somebody stole the guy’s car—but it was almost out of gas. He found the car a few blocks away and had to push it to a gas station to fill up the tank. When he got back home, he discovered that four of his canaries had been crushed to death by falling plaster in his apartment. After slipping on the wet carpet and badly injuring his tailbone, this guy began to wonder if “God wanted me dead but kept missing.”

Even if you’ve never had a day quite that bad, you’ve likely discovered that life is full of problems, pressures, and stresses.

Did you know that the Bible says we shouldn’t be surprised by life’s problems? It says, “You are temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials and temptations. This is no accident—it happens to prove your faith” (1 Peter 1:6-7 PHILLIPS).

If you are a believer, nothing comes into your life by accident. Everything is Father-filtered. The Bible doesn’t say everything’s good. But as Romans 8:28 says, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (NLT)—even the difficulties, the irritations, and the interruptions. They all have a purpose.

We don’t usually realize it when we’re in the situation and may not want to admit it afterward, but every problem has a greater purpose: God does it to prove our faith.

So how does God want you to respond to difficulties? James 1:2-3 says, “Consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure” (GNT).

God uses difficulties to test your faith, and you increase in faith when you rejoice continually and keep a positive attitude in spite of things not going right.

When you remain grateful and positive and continue trusting God even in the middle of difficulties, your faith is stretched.

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick

For more Daily Hope with Rick Warren, please visit pastorrick.com!

Get Pastor Rick's BRAND NEW 365-day devotional

Your life is shaped by the doors you walk through and those you walk past.
 
Pastor Rick Warren encourages you to walk through the door that leads to greater intimacy with God in his brand new 365-day devotional, Open Doors.
 
Be among the first to get this brand-new devotional from Pastor Rick by giving a gift below to share the hope of Christ through Daily Hope. We’ll send you Open Doors as thanks for your support.
 
Pastor Rick’s 365-day devotional will help you . . .
  • Discern which doors in life to walk through, and which to walk past
  • Develop a deeper relationship with the Lord
  • Experience greater love, trust and freedom
 
So give your best gift now and be encouraged by the daily, biblical wisdom Pastor Rick shares in his NEW Open Doors devotional.
 
May it help you step through the door to a stronger, more fulfilling relationship with God.
 
*The USA IRS code permits you to deduct the amount of your financial gift to Daily Hope that exceeds the fair market value of materials you received from Daily Hope.

This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

You can listen to Rick Warren on OnePlace.com.