Trials, instead of prompting a 'woe is me' attitude, should be re-evaluated as valuable experiences, nudging us into God's divine purpose for us.

God uses trials to test our hearts, but He never places a trial before us to tempt us. God uses trials we bring on ourselves to draw us closer to Him.

Like a loving parent, God brings just the right pressures to bear to bring about necessary change in His children. Each trial has a place in His purpose.

God promises some Christians that He will keep them from the Tribulation, the 'hour of trial.' Here are the characteristics of those whom God will protect.

Daniel 7:25 reveals the strategy of the enemy: a concerted effort of the Beast to physically, mentally, and if possible, spiritually wear out the saints.

God is able to allow a setback or a handicap to help us transcend our trials, building sterling character. The weaknesses we live through make us strong.

Trials come in many forms, and when we are shaken by a big one—when the clock stops and the whole world changes for us—what is our response?

As God's children, we must undergo adversity to build endurance, character, and hope.

Of all people, one might think, Christians should be the most blessed, yet they often fall under heavy trials. Why does God allow this? What is His purpose?

Satan accused God of hedging Job about on every side, saying that if God would let down the hedge, they could see what Job was really made of.

The rigors God puts us through are not to crush us, but to shape us, transforming us into His image. True gain is walking through the anguish in victory.

Why did God allow this tragedy? Why do the good suffer and the evil prosper? We want answers to these questions, but Jesus points us in another direction.

Greek and Roman myths have shaped the world view of Western culture, including our attitude toward hope, a concept which is often abused and distorted.

Every previous event and decision in our lives has shaped our resultant character, including the bad decisions that led us down a wrong path.

Hard trials are not punishments from God for unrighteousness but tests of faith in which He is intimately involved to prepare us for the world to come.

Acts 27 teaches that we must distinguish among several types of suffering. Regardless of the type of suffering, we must remember that God will deliver us.

Affliction is a necessary aspect of life, yielding strength of character, while ease and comfort weaken us. Christ was perfected as High Priest through suffering.

The Potter and Clay analogy provides instructions for understanding character-building tests and trials in the life-long sanctification process.

Without daily contact with God in prayer and Bible study, and without continual contact with the brethren, we may lose the determination to persevere.

Even the accuser of the brethren made no accusations against Job, the first of several curious absences—things left unsaid—in the book of Job.

Today, the church is experiencing more overwhelming trials than ever before, indicating that God is preparing His people for the end time.

Despite the privileged position of our calling, God does not cut us any slack in terms of trials and tests to perfect us. We must accept God's sovereignty.

God uses trials to test and humble us, but He never impedes our ability to move forward toward His goal of creating us as a family in His image.

An outward trial can be a catalyst for character development. By testing ourselves, we can take the edge off the pressure of God testing us.

Life is marked by sorrow, endurance, and humility, a reality acknowledged by poets, novelists, and by the Bible itself, which places suffering within God's work.

We can be assured that we are God's heirs and offspring if we are led by the spirit, remaining on the sanctified path of fellowship, growing continually.

In God's hands, trials and afflictions are tools to produce refined character and joy, and to move us away from worldly choices and back to His purpose.

Trials are a means to produce spiritual growth, unless we resort to super-righteousness, straining to please God by exalting our works.

God gave the plagues to give Israel confidence to rely on Him, as well as to weaken Egypt, systematically dethroning all the gods of Egypt.

Like Jesus and other heroes of faith, we need to look beyond the present to the long term effects of the trials and tests we go though, seeing their value.

The constant tests to which God submits His people enable them to build character by responding in faith. God perfected Abraham's faith through difficult trials.

We tend to think of the early Church as a 'golden age' of unity and momentum. But early church members experienced problems similar to what we face today.

Calamities, trials, anxiety, evil, and calamities, as well as blessings, happen to Christians in order to become fashioned and molded into God's image.

Joseph knew and recognized his brothers before they knew him, even as God knows our guiltiest secret sins that we think we have effectively hidden.

How involved in man's affairs is God? Is He merely reactive, or does He actively participate—even cause events and circumstances, particularly in the church?

Solomon reveals that God is solidly in control of time. Knowing that God is sovereign over time should fill us with faith in God's workmanship.

For prayer to be successful, our petitions must be specific and synchronized to God's will, but we must patiently and humbly accept God's timetable.

The group that one fellowships with is less important than the understanding that there is one true church, bound by a spiritual, not a physical unity.

Persecution is a fact of life for a Christian. Jesus Christ says we are blessed if we are persecuted for righteousness' sake — here's why.

While it is good to acknowledge God's will in our prayers and know that His decisions will stand, we must also remember that God's mind can be changed.

Job's three 'friends,' exemplars of all men, made critical assumptions and judgments about Job on the basis of biased religious and cultural tradition.

Numerous scriptures show the bad effects of impatience committed by ancient Israel, while the patriarchs, Jesus Christ, and the Father set examples of true patience.

Our focus should be to seek God's kingdom, reciprocating God's love, committing ourselves to a life of service, fulfilling His purpose without complaining.

The danger of abundant blessings is that we tend to forget the source of the blessings and cease being thankful. When we forget to be thankful, we forget God.

The valley-of-shadow imagery symbolizes the fears, trials, and tests needed to produce character, quality fruit, and an intimate trust in the shepherd.

During the past century, the world has experienced 'practice contractions.' These birth pangs will increase until Christ returns to establish the Kingdom.

The meal offering represents the fulfillment of the second great commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Here is how to understand this offering.

In the turbulent and uncertain times ahead, we will need extraordinary fortitude and courage. Trials can improving perseverance or active endurance.

The book of James applies to us after the sanctification process has begun. The most effective way of eliminating sin is to do righteousness.