Hey Besties! Have you ever wondered why adversity is important?
Adversity is defined as a hardship or a misfortune. By the definition, it already seems like a bad thing, but what if it didn’t have to be?
What if adversity was actually working for you instead of against you?
Before we jump into the meat of this blog, I want to ask you if you realize how special you are. God, the one who created Heaven and Earth is your Father so that makes you royalty.
This post is all about why adversity is important.
Are you ready? Let’s geaux!
7 Unexpected Reasons Why Adversity Is Important
1. To Properly Train You
Jesus is known as the King of kings and the Lord of lords and guess who is a king and a lord! You! He wasn’t referring to those in a monarchy; he was talking about you!
There are many times God has spoken of your royal priesthood in the Bible.
Something interesting about royal families is that their children are raised by nannies, governesses, guardians, and tutors, not their parents.
You were raised quite similar according to the Word. Back in the day, God placed you under the guard of the law. You were kept in protective custody so to speak until faith was revealed (Galatians 3:23 NLT).
The law was your guardian until Christ came. It protected you until you could be made right with God through faith.
And now that the way of faith has come, you no longer need a guardian. Since then you now belong to Christ and you are true children of Abraham. You are his heirs and God’s promises belong to you.
You were adopted as God’s very own child and because you are his child, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your heart prompting you to call out Abba Father.
Now you are no longer a slave, but God’s own child and since you are his child God has made you his heir.
Every royal child has to go through training. God uses adversity as your training by allowing it to try your character and proving that his word about you remains true.
You are royalty. Never forget it!
2. To Learn Empathy
The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV).
Empathy in the simplest terms means to walk in another person’s shoes. It is the ability to recognize, understand, and have compassion for someone else’s situation or circumstance.
It’s easy to look at someone’s hardship and not feel a way about it because it’s not you experiencing it. Even if you do feel for the person, you won’t actually know how they feel until you experience a similar situation.
Adversity acts as an empathy coach that keeps things in life “fair”. There are too many times when you can judge someone else’s situation saying “that’ll never be me”.
Adversity humbles you really quickly! Every temptation and hardship you go through shows you how to be empathetic towards someone else.
{RELATED POST: How To Overcome Adversity?}
3. To Prove To You That God Is Really For You
What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us? (Romans 8:31 NIV)
When you grow through adversity, try your best to remember that God is for you. It’s in those moments where he wants to reveal his true nature to you.
It can be easy to blame God for hardships, but you must know that even if God didn’t cause it; he will use it for your good (Romans 8:28 NIV).
When things start to go “wrong” in your life, adversity can give you the proper perspective of who is right. Nothing in this world will ever be as faithful to you than God.
He has promised that he will be with you always even until the end of age (Matthew 28:20 NIV)
I will be your God throughout your lifetime until your hair is white with age. I made you and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you (Isaiah 46:4 NIV).
Do you believe him?
4. To Help You Think Clearly
So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace (Romans 8:6 NIV).
When all you have has failed, there is one thing that won’t and that’s the Word of God. The Word of God is powerful and it can help you think about what actually matters.
Let me ask you a question: Is complaining about adversity going to change it?
A good technique you can try is to write about how you feel in the moment of adversity. It may feel uneasy at first because your natural instinct is to complain about the situation. It’s normal.
Writing about it separates you from adversity and gives you a birds eye view of what’s inside of your heart. It may even show you that this current experience is not the root of your problem.
5. To Challenge You To Grow
Muscles grow under tension. Unfortunately this is the only way.
Did you know that faith is a muscle? Think about this: If adversity hadn’t happened in your life, would you be the same person you are today?
I remember vigorously training for about eight months. I started out at two hundred pounds and my trainer saw how badly I wanted to change.
She started me off with light weights at the beginning of my journey, but as time passed she pushed me to keep increasing the weights.
This is because I was growing and so was my muscles and pain tolerance. What if adversity was sent on assignment to show you what you were actually capable of?
Adversity’s job is to strengthen you to take on the challenges of life. You are more capable than you know.
6. To Push You Closer To God
Come close to God and he will come close to you. Wash your hands you sinners. Purify your hearts for you loyalty is divided between God and the world (James 4:8 NIV).
Have you ever seen a young child cling to his mother? Even when the mother disciplines him, he immediately goes back to the mother.
When adversity comes, don’t let it put a wedge between you and God. Press into God like never before during these moments.
Begin to look at adversity as someone who is trying to provoke you. I’m sure that you’ve witnessed someone getting bullied before.
It’s all fun and games until the one who was getting bullied calls someone to defend them.
When adversity starts to provoke you, run to your Abba and tell him all about it. Better yet ask him to show you who you are in the midst of it all!
7. To Reveal You And Show You What You’re Made Of
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you so much praise and honor and joy on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1:7 NIV).
Nothing proves to be true without proper testing. The phone you are holding had to go through testing before it could get to your hands.
Every car you see has to go through series of testing before they can be driven. Even the medical field consistently tests medicines and techniques for the future.
Ever thought about why a doctor says he “practices medicine”? Everything is constantly being tested so don’t think that you’re exempt. Your testing will just reveal the essence of who you are.
Adversity doesn’t have to be looked at as a bad thing. It can actually be your friend.
When we change our perspective on adversity, we can see that God uses adversity for us and not against us.
This post was all about why adversity is important.
Remember you are destined to win because he got up!
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