Enduring Trials

For everyone · Tell us where you are

1. How can trials have any purpose?

   • Jas 1:2–4

     ²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

   • Rom 5:3–5

     ³Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

   • 1 Pet 1:6–7

     ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials ⁷so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2. Where do I find strength to keep going?

   In context (Phil 4:11-13), Phil 4:13 is strength to be content in any circumstance, not a promise of success at whatever we attempt.

   • 2 Cor 4:7–10

     ⁷Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us. ⁸We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. Keep reading

   • Isa 40:29–31

     ²⁹He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak. ³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. ³¹But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

   • Phil 4:13

     ¹³I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

3. How did Joseph endure betrayal and prison?

   • Gen 39:20–23

     ²⁰So Joseph’s master took him and had him thrown into the prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. While Joseph was there in the prison, ²¹the Lord was with him and extended kindness to him, granting him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. ²²And the warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care, so that he was responsible for all that was done in the prison. Keep reading

   • Gen 45:4–8

     ⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” And they did so. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt! ⁵And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you. ⁶For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting. Keep reading

   • Gen 50:15–21

     ¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.” ¹⁶So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Before he died, your father commanded, ¹⁷‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I beg you, please forgive the transgression and sin of your brothers, for they did you wrong.’ So now, Joseph, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept. Keep reading