“But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” – Philippians 1:12-14 KJV

Taking a bad situation and finding the good in it is not an easy thing to do. Yet that is exactly what Paul did. And it is something that we need to put into practice too; for “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 KJV). You know, not only did Paul tell us that all things work together for good to those who love God, he exercised faith in that belief, while he was in chains. Thus, he found courage and strength to cope with the trouble that he was in by remembering God’s promises.

Isn’t it interesting how trials and faith work hand in hand? That is, God sometimes allows us to go through hardship to show us what our faith is really made of. But wasn’t Paul’s faith strong? Indeed it was! So why let it be tested in this way?

There’s something that needs to be noted here. Paul said that as a result of being in chains the gospel was being furthered in that the whole palace guard became aware of it and people even became bolder to preach the gospel. This teaches us a very important lesson about suffering: Sometimes God allows us to go through hardship to make His influence known to those who do not know Him, and to give courage to those who do know Him to share their faith in a more effective way, thus using our faith as a means to increase their faith in Him. In other words, it’s not always about us. When experiencing trials there’s a tendency to say, “Why is this happening to me?” Wouldn’t it be better to just simply say, “Why is this happening?” When self is left out and Jesus Christ is brought into focus that’s when we really begin to see the big picture; that’s when we see that God’s blessing is always present. But His blessing can be easily overlooked, simply by focusing all of our attention on the badness of our situation, which means we need to take caution in what we choose to behold.

Just because you may be in what appears to be a bad spot in life, that doesn’t mean God isn’t with you, working out His good will to pave the way for a brighter future for His people (not just you). Indeed, we can believe many things about God, but there comes a time when we must put our beliefs into practice. This marks the great divide between merely having an intellectual assent to the truth and knowing Jesus Christ. In other words, being doers of the word and not hearers only is vital to our growth in Christ.

So what will you choose to do with hardship? How will you look at it from this point on? Satan wants you to lose sight of God’s blessing. Don’t let his ugliness blind your eyes to the facts; instead, look to Jesus Christ and know that He is at work to bring about a happy ending to your situation.