When trials become classrooms of grace

Every destination requires a journey, and great victories often crown challenging seasons. Between where we are and where God is taking us lies a difficult in-between space — a place that tests our patience, our faith, and our resolve.

The truth is, life is filled with these seasons. A job loss. A divorce. The death of a loved one. Healing from addiction or abuse. Each challenge presses us, and each one gives us a choice.

What will we do in the in-between?

Some rebel. Others numb the ache with distractions — alcohol, busyness, endless entertainment. Some swing like a pendulum between faith and fear, trusting today and doubting tomorrow. And some simply stop moving forward, paralyzed by uncertainty.

But here is what we must remember: If you are a child of God, he did not take a vacation and leave your life unattended. It is a truth we must cling to when life spirals down: God is the very one who either allowed — or even initiated — the challenge you are facing.

Consider the Israelites. They prayed for deliverance from slavery for 400 years. At the right time, God answered their cry. But their deliverance required a journey. He parted the Red Sea in a mighty display of his power and initiated their path to the land of promise. Yet the moment they entered the desert, they complained: “If only we had died in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve.” (Ex. 16:3).

But God had not abandoned them. He gave them manna each morning and quail each evening. He guided them with fire by night and a cloud by day. In the desert, they witnessed his glory.

That’s the purpose of a challenge: to reveal his presence and to train our hearts. He welcomes our honest cries, but grumbling blinds us to his provision. The desert, as painful as it feels, becomes the very place where God says, “Look to me. Learn to trust me. Let me be enough.”

Challenges expose what lies beneath — our fears, our doubts, our self-reliance.

The prophet Isaiah reminded Israel while they were in captivity: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). That reminder carried the faithful when their future felt uncertain, and it steadies my heart today: His promises remain immovable.

And in that same chapter, God whispers the prize of faith: “Those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). The Hebrew word for “wait” paints a picture of stretching forward in hope. Waiting on God is not a passive act — it is an active form of trust. And those who do so will soar above their circumstances, with God as the wind beneath their wings.

No challenge illustrates this truth more than the cross.

Jesus endured betrayal, torture and crucifixion. For three long days, silence reigned. But on the other side of his suffering was the greatest prize: eternal redemption for those who put their trust in him.

The cross proves that no pain is wasted in God’s hands. Out of the darkest trial came the brightest victory.

Friend, the challenges before you are not meaningless. They are not a punishment, and they are not evidence of God’s absence. They are classrooms of grace, where God is shaping your faith and preparing your prize.

And as I look back at many trials I’ve faced, I can say this with confidence: The God who calls you his own will not waste a single ounce of your pain.