Suffering creates the possibility of growth in, holiness, but only to those who, by letting all else go, are open to the training—not by arguing with the Lord about what they did or did not do to deserve punishment, but by praying, "Lord, show me what You have for me in this.

isn't the problems that determine our destiny. It's how we respond.

Just as stars shine brightest in the darkest night, your joy blazes brilliantly through life's problems when you count them as joy.

Let every hindrance to joy become the soil out of which joy blossoms.

Your trials and difficulties are a golden opportunity to illustrate your faith in God.

Your trials and difficulties are a golden opportunity for joy.

Life need not be easy to be joyful. Joy is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of Christ.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. James 1:2

Count it all joy…when you fall into various trials (JAMES 1:2).

Trials are not meant to defeat you. They are meant to be defeated.

We mustn't allow our circumstances and disappointments to become the excuse for the choices we make in life. God is greater than all of that, and He can bring beauty out of ashes. Our trials come, Augustine said, "to prove us and to improve us.

Suffering in and of itself does not lead a person into a deeper relationship with God. As with those who hear the word of God yet do not respond to it with faith, suffering divorced from faith and hope will actually embitter us as our hearts grow harder rather than softer toward God. In other words, suffering will either make us run to God or away from Him. In the midst of trials, we must ask ourselves, "Is this trial making me bitter and callous, or is it making me loving and gentle?