The Painful Process Of Spiritual Growth

Sometimes when trouble comes into our lives, we feel as if we have been hit broadside. We feel desperation and then we think, “Why is this happening to me?” One possibility is that God is using a painful experience to get our attention.

In Psalm 119:71, David wrote:

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.“

The Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews 12:11 that chastening “yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.”

God may be using pain to lovingly persuade us to change. The season of trouble may not be easy, but if we let ourselves be trained by it, new spiritual growth will result as we become more like His Son (Philippians 3:10).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets

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• Struggles Of The Christian
• Measuring Spiritual Growth
• Have We Measured Ourselves Lately?
• Growing Spiritually Through Grief
• When Trouble Comes
• Five Ways God Uses Problems