They're a part of His divine plan. Think of a seed. As long as a seed remains in the light, it cannot germinate and will never become what it was created to be. The seed must be planted in the soil, in a dark place, so that the potential on the inside will come to life. In the same way, there are seeds of greatness in us—dreams, goals, talents, potential—that will only come to life in a dark place.

God never said we would understand everything along the way. He didn't promise that there wouldn't be any paim, suffering and disappointments. But He did promise that it would all work out for our good.

There are some things you can only learn in a storm.

You can't pray away every difficulty; you can't pray away everything you don't like. If the situation is not changing, then God is using the situation to change you.

Everything that happens in life—the difficulties, the delays, the things that are not fair—they're not random. God is giving you the opportunity to grow, to come up higher. He's getting you prepared to handle the weight of favor, the weight of influence.

Understand, adversities are simply a test of your faith. Perhaps God wants to see how you will treat other people when you are mistreated.

Every storm you went through, every bad break, and every dark, lonely season deposited something on the inside. It pushed you to mature, pushed you to trust God in a greater way, pushed you to be more resilient and determined.

The very contradictions in my life are in some ways signs of God's mercy to me.

Suffering will come, trouble will come - that's part of life; a sign that you are alive. If you have no suffering and no trouble, the devil is taking it easy. You are in his hand.

God makes the life fertile by disappointments, as he makes the ground fertile by frosts.

If you're going to do anything great in life, there will be opposition, setbacks, delays and critics. When you have big dreams, you're going to have big challenges.

The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved. They can only be outgrown.