The Works of God

Profound good in our lives often emerges in a crucible of significant suffering. Jesus himself “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). Often faith and love shine most clearly, simply, and courageously in a dark place. And what marked you for bad? Often our typical sins emerge in reaction to betrayal, loss, or pain. Hammered by some evil, we discover the evils in our own hearts (Rom. 12:17). And perhaps most often, in the hands of our kind and purposeful Father, the bad and the good both come out. A trial brings out what is most wrong in you, and God brings about what is most right as he meets you and works with you (Ps. 119:67). The endurance of faith is one of the Spirit’s finest fruits—and you only learn to endure when you must live through something hard.

David Powlison, “God’s Grace and Your Suffering,” in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, ed. by John Piper and Justin Taylor, p. 147.