If you are going through trials, we invite you to send us your prayer requests or talk to a mentor about what you’re going through.

Originally written by Charles H. Spurgeon, published in “Mornings & Evenings,” entry for March 8th, AM.

Updated to modern English by Darren Hewer, 2009.

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)

God’s people have their trials. When God chose His people, he never intended that they would be spared from trials. They were chosen in the furnace of affliction. They were never chosen merely to live with worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised them, but when their Lord drew up the charter of privileges, He included correction among the things that they would inevitably encounter. Trials are our share of the suffering for the sake of righteousness that was predestined for us in Christ’s last legacy.

The stars were created by His hands, and their orbits fixed by Him. In the same way our trials assigned to us: He has prearranged their season and their place, their intensity and the effect they will have on us. People must never expect to escape troubles. If they do, they will be disappointed, because none of their ancestors of the faith have been without them. Remember the patience of Job! Remember also Abraham, for he faced many trials, and by his faith through them, he became the “father of all who believe.” (Romans 4:11) Read the biographies of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and you will discover none of these men and women who God made vessels of mercy were spared from the fire of affliction.

It has always been that the cross of trouble is engraved on every vessel of mercy, as the royal mark by which the King’s vessels of honor are distinguished. But although trouble is inevitable along the path of God’s children, they have the comfort of knowing that their Master has traveled it before them. They have His presence and sympathy to cheer them on, His grace to support them, and His example to teach them how to endure. And when they reach the kingdom, it will more than make amends for the many hardships they passed through to enter it.

Question: Even when we don’t know why we are facing trails, how should we respond to them, in the way God wants us to?

About this Author: Charles Spurgeon