How God Uses Trials: The Unseen Work of Suffering in the Life of a Believer

“Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance” (James 1:2–3).

Let’s face it. We don’t like trials. We avoid them, pray to be spared from them, and often feel crushed beneath their weight. But the Bible has a surprising perspective on the trials we face in this life. For the believer, trials are not random attacks or divine oversights. They are tools in the gracious hand of a loving God.

In fact, James actually calls us to consider it all joy when we face trials. Not because trials feel good, but because they produce something good. Trials are how God grows His people.
With that in mind, here are five biblical reasons we can trust that God is working in and through our suffering.

Trials Expose What We Trust

Trials have a way of revealing what we really rely on.

When our lives are comfortable, we tend to overestimate our own spiritual stability; when in reality, we’re often leaning on routine, relationships, or reputation. But when those things are shaken, the Lord exposes the foundation of our faith.

This is exactly what God does through trials: He strips away our false securities so that we cling more tightly to Him.

As David says in Psalm 119:67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” Affliction can feel like breaking, but it’s often a breaking that brings us back to the Word.

Trials Refine Our Faith

Peter writes, “You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your
faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6–7).

Faith is not proven by ease, but by endurance. Contrary to popular belief, trials don’t destroy genuine faith; they purify it.

In other words, God uses pressure, pain, and disappointment in this life not to crush us, but to refine us. He burns off our self-reliance, pride, and superficial trust so that what remains is a faith that is genuine and God-glorifying.

So, when you walk through suffering and can still say, “Christ is enough,” that is a miracle of God’s grace.

Trials Produce Spiritual Perseverance

Turning our attention back to James, the brother of Jesus doesn’t just tell us to survive trials—he wants us to spiritually thrive in our trials, which is why he tells us they’re producing something: “the testing of your faith brings about perseverance” (James 1:3).

The Greek word for “perseverance” means to remain under a weight without collapsing. Trials build spiritual muscle. Like lifting weights in the gym, every painful moment or season is purposeful; it is building strength for what’s ahead.

The fastest way from A to B is a straight line, and that’s typically how we think of trials. We often want out of the trial as quickly as possible—but God wants to accomplish something in us through the trial. That thing He is producing is endurance. And endurance leads to spiritual maturity (James 1:4).

We tend to ask, “When will this end?” But God is asking, “How am I using this for your good?”

Trials Draw Us Closer to Christ

Paul wrote in Philippians 3:10 that he longed to know Christ—and even “the fellowship of His sufferings.” Now, that’s not a verse we put on coffee mugs. But it’s the reality of discipleship.

To suffer as a Christian is not a sign that God has abandoned you. It may be the clearest sign that you’re being made more like Jesus.

Our Savior was a Man of Sorrows acquainted with grief. He entered our brokenness. So when we suffer, we are given the privilege to walk in His footsteps.

God doesn’t waste our suffering. He uses it to draw us closer to the heart of Christ—to teach us dependence, to refine our affections, and to remind us that this world is not our home.

Trials Prepare Us to Comfort Others

Although trials tend to make us focus on our own suffering, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that God “comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.”

This helps us to remember that trials don’t just change us—they equip us to help others.

The most compassionate people in the church are rarely those who’ve had the easiest lives. They’re often the ones who have walked through pain, wept through nights, and come through with a deeper love for Christ and His people.

God comforts us not to end with us, but to flow through us. He transforms us from sufferers into servants.

God Wastes Nothing

It’s important for us to remember that God never wastes a tear, a trial, or a dark night. Even when we can’t see the outcome, we can trust the One who determines it. The Lord is not some cruel, distant deity who desires to punish His children. Rather, He is a kind, intimate Savior, who is refining, strengthening, and drawing us nearer to Himself.

Romans 8:28 isn’t a cliché—it’s a promise. And it’s a promise that was secured by the suffering
of Jesus.

We can face our trials with hope not because they’re easy, but because God is sovereign. He knows what He’s doing, and He is working all things together for your good and His glory.

So take heart, brother or sister in Christ. Though your trial is painful, it is not pointless. It is a
tool in the hand of your Redeemer. And He never misses His mark.