Why Is This Happening To Me?

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.   Romans 5:3-4

When things seem to be going wrong in your life, your enemy will try to use the situation to undermine your confidence in God. Satan loves to sow doubts, because he knows that if you lose your joy, you will struggle in every other area of your life.

One of the “joy killing” questions he will attempt to plant in your mind is this one: Why is this happening to me? Whether a health issue, a family problem, or some disappointment, the struggle makes you wonder why God would allow such a terrible thing to happen to you. And if you don’t know how to answer this question, it will sap your faith, undermine your hope, and kill your joy.

But God wants you to know that your suffering is not meaningless. Your suffering will produce endurance, character, and hope. God uses the most difficult times in your life to achieve something of infinite value. He can take the greatest pain you’ve experienced and transform it into a remarkable resemblance of Jesus Christ in you.

If you have understood that the whole of this life is a preparation for eternity, you will say with the apostle Paul, “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18, NIV). God’s purpose is not just that you will be in glory, but that glory will be in you.

Your life is in God’s hands. That means you can be confident that God is working out his purpose, even in the darkest days of your life. Your suffering is not accidental, meaningless, or out of control. It’s the place where God will form the image of Christ in you.

If you can see that, then you will be able to rejoice in God even through the hardest days of your life. You may look up to God through your tears, but you will be able to say, “Thank you that this is not the end, but only a painful passage on the way to all that you are preparing for me.”

For further reading, see James 1