The Hardship of the Christian Life

How do you deal with discouragement as a Christian? I don’t mean “discouragement” as in “work has been busy lately,” or “my favorite sports team hasn’t been playing well.” I mean the soul-crushing, never-ending, hope-devouring kind of “discouragement.” You could call it “trials” or “hardship.” What do you do as a Christian when it seems like everything in your life is crumbling around you? What do you do when it seems as if your marriage is falling apart, your children are straying from the faith, your friends are leaving, or you are facing constant opposition in ministry or in your career?

God, in His good grace, has given us a plethora of words in the Scripture to provide hope and encouragement in the midst of trial. As we take a look at this, I would like to answer three questions: (1) What is the purpose of hardship as a Christian? (2) What gives you hope in the midst of hardship as a Christian? (3) How does hardship make you a better Christian man?

1. What is the purpose of hardship as a Christian?

Christians do not face hardship, trial, and discouragement without reason. Romans 8:28 tells us that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Everything you experience in life has been ordained, planned, and carried out by God. 

The Apostle James writes

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4

The purpose of trial in the Christian life is to take the affections of our hearts and redirect them from the things of this world to the things of heaven. This is sanctification and is the result of you being conformed more and more into the image of Christ. Christ did not save you just to let you spend the rest of your life wallowing in your sin. Rather, Christ saved you to sanctify you and to perfect you. Oftentimes, when you are in the midst of trial or difficulty, it is hard to see what good can come of it and it can seem pointless. However, rest assured that God is doing this for your good, even if you cannot yet see it.

2. What gives you hope in the midst of hardship as a Christian?

As Christian men, what things give you hope, encouragement, and refreshment? In my own life, I have faced many struggles and difficulties. Oftentimes, the only thing which provided me comfort and hope was the knowledge that Christ was everlasting, His covenants were everlasting, and He would neither leave me nor forsake me. In the times when everything seemed chaotic and changing like the sands of the desert, God’s steadfastness anchored me to firm ground.

If you speak to seasoned saints in your church, the ones who are the most hopeful and most at peace are often the ones who have experienced the severest trial. What is the common refrain which you hear from these older brothers and sisters? It is always “God is faithful.” What did the prophet write at the end of Habakkuk?

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

As Christians, the thing which should always give us hope is the Lord; the fact that He is sovereignly and providentially in control of all things; the fact that He is steadfast and unchanging in His character; the fact that He has made ironclad covenants with His people. No matter what happens to you in your life, if you experience hardship, or persecution, or disease, or war, or famine, or poverty, remember that God the Lord is everlasting. Even if everything else in your life seems to be falling apart, take hope because one day, you will be with the Lord in paradise (Luke 23:43). Nothing in all of creation will be able to separate you from your King (Romans 8:35-39). Even when it seems as if there is nothing for you to cling to, hold fast to that.

3. How does hardship make you a better Christian man?

How does hardship and trial make you into a better Christian man, into a better husband, into a better father, and into a better minister? How do you respond to hardship? Do you become bitter and angry, questioning God and His providence? Or do you respond with humility and faith, remembering God’s covenant promises to you and to His people?

Trial and hardship as a Christian redirect the affections of our hearts from things temporal to things eternal. In turn, this makes you a stronger Christian man. Hardship makes us rely more upon Christ.

Trial and hardship as a Christian make you patient. The more difficulties you experience in your life make you more patient as you rely more upon Christ. Relying upon God and patience often grow hand-in-hand in the Christian life.

Trial and hardship as a Christian make you better equipped to minister to others. When you learn to rely more upon Christ and become more patient as a sufferer, you will also become more compassionate towards others. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18) and so is the minister or fellow Christian.

One day, brothers, the trials and hardships of this life will come to an end. One day, brothers, your King will call you home into eternal rest where “He will wipe away every tear from [your] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). In the meantime, remember that your God uses trials, hardship, and discouragement in your life to sanctify you. Embrace it, lean into it, and pray to God that He would use it to grow fruit in your life. Pray that God will continue to redirect the affections of your heart from those things which are passing away to those things which are eternal.

Jared Dean serves as Assistant Pastor of Liberty Presbyterian Church in Owings Mills, MD, as a police officer and chaplain at a county police department in Maryland, and as an editor of Reforming Men.