Romans 5:3-5 "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us to develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love."
Our trials and struggles are exercises for our faith and as most exercises they increase our endurance. God has a purpose for our lives and there are certain things we must posses in order to accomplish this purpose. God develops our faith and character to enable us to fulfill the calling He has placed on our life. This is not to say that we do not have free-will; sometimes our choices and our exercising of our free-will can greatly increase the intensity of our struggles. If we think of our life and God's plan as a map and we are headed on a specific path... if we deviate a few degrees off course for a little while, the correction we require is greater than our original deviation.
I guess my point is that I find this verse very comforting and it is amazing when we can reach a point that we can calm ourselves and go to God in pray and resist the temptation to stress and become angry and full of worry... That is when we can be full of God's joy through our faith in Him.
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