James 1:2-4 NASB
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Heb 12:7-11 NIV
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
When we face hardship or trials, we are exhorted to endure. We are to treat such trials as divine discipline and to expect them if we are sons of the living God. If we endure, eventually we will gain peace and a harvest of righteousness having trained by it.
God’s Revealed Will for us is to conform us to be like His Son (Rom 8:28-29). And so His discipline trains us in this manner to bear fruit of the Spirit :
- Personal Trials. Train us in love, peace and joy.
- Our Neighbor’s Trials. Train us in gentleness, kindness and goodness towards them.
- Testing and Temptation. Train us in patience, faithfulness and self-control.
