Though we do not always know why we suffer, God’s word provides us with some of His purposes for the trials, hardships, and suffering we experience.

From Genesis to Revelation, God is conveying His plan and purpose for us. 

In Genesis, we understand that God created Adam and Eve. He provided an amazing garden for them to enjoy. He gave them one rule: Genesis 2:16: “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

God gave the first people the opportunity to live in harmony with Him. They chose to break faith with God, to rebel against Him, by choosing to eat from the tree they were simply created to admire.

With that one act of rebellion, all descendants of Adam and Eve would also rebel against God. But Godalready had in place His plan to provide a way for that chasm between us to be bridged [“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”]. 

Jesus Christ is the answer. He is God’s one and only Son.  He, in collaboration with the Father, provided the way for us to have a living relationship with God: John 6:29: “Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Since there is this chasm, and God has a plan to enable the chasm to be bridged, He needs to get our attention. One way He does this is through suffering, trials, etc. When people are hard pressed, it often results in that person seeking God. He alone is truly all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere. To choose not to seek God is never a profitable option.

1 Peter 1:6-7 states: “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Suffering has purpose. It is our choice to allow our suffering to prove our faith in Christ is genuine and to build our relationship with our Creator God or not.

God also purposes to create a Christ-like character through our suffering: Romans 5:3-5 states: “… we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” 

Suffering has purpose. It is our choice to allow God to use our suffering to build Christ-like character or not.

Experience has taught me that trials are God’s way of protecting me from making a decision that would be detrimental to me. The trial preoccupied me in such a way that I didn’t have time to act or speak with regards to another situation. It wasn’t until later that I recognized God’s intervention through the trial.

Suffering has purpose. It is our best choice to allow our suffering to open our eyes to see God’s involvement in our lives.

It is easy to praise and worship God when we are not threatened by a trial or hardship. But God wants us to praise Him and worship Him in the midst of our struggles. 1 Peter 2:9-10 shows that God desires for us to praise Him: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Suffering has purpose. It is our choice to praise and exalt God’s Name in the midst of suffering.

Each morning it is my practice to kneel before God. I find that when I’m in the thick of a trial, this is the best place for me. I fight with wanting to take some action to resolve or deal with the trial, instead of taking the time to kneel before my Maker, but God reminds me that on my knees is the best place for me.

Suffering has purpose. It is our choice to take time to kneel and pray to God in the midst of suffering so that He can speak to our hearts through His Holy Spirit and His word.

Hebrews 12:5-11 tells us that discipline (which may come through suffering) reveals that we belong to our Heavenly Father. It is a means of identification with Him. Hebrews explains that earthly fathers discipline their children, and our Heavenly Father is the perfect Father, so He will discipline us, with mercy and grace.

Suffering has purpose. It is our choice to allow suffering to correct us and identify us with our Heavenly Father.

This is a quote from something I read: “The third thing is the conquering grace that he provides, “the way out” that is always present, never failing. What is that way of escape? It is dependence. Discipline is necessary, but so is dependence. All through the Old Testament the heroes and heroines of faith have taught us that in the hour of testing God strips away all human support so that we may learn that he is enough. “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble” (Ps.46:1), and we will never discover that until everything else has been taken away. Then we begin to discover that God can hold us steady. He himself is the way of escape, and that is why he puts us through pressures and testings.”  

God often stated to the Israelites, through His prophets, that one reason for their discipline was for others to know that He is God. The Israelites failed to magnify God to the other nations. They adopted the ways of the world rather than adhering to the God who had delivered them from Egypt and gave them their land.

Suffering has a purpose. God will be magnified. He gives us sufficient grace to work through the challenges [See 2 Corinthians 12:9.]

Are you having a challenging time seeing God’s purpose in your trials, hardships, or suffering? I would be happy to pray with you, and listen to you.  Please contact me at: ButGodCares@gmail.com.

Living for Jesus, Donna

P.S. If this has helped you, please share it with others!

Note: If the verses for Bible references do not appear when you hover over them, go directly to the website, and they should appear for you. Also, please remember to look at the full context of the verses by reading the complete passage.

Copyright 2025 Donna Shappy   All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – without the prior permission of the author.