It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)
How do you respond when you experience hardship? Most people take one of two options. Option 1: Try to ignore it. Just grit your teeth and try to keep living life the way you always have. Hope that if you ignore it, it will go away.
Then there’s option 2: Try to escape it. Change your external circumstances to make your life more like you wanted it. Get a new job, move to a new place, find a new friend, find a new spouse. Figure out what’s making life hard, and get it out of your life.
There’s another possibility many people don’t consider. Option 3: Look for God in it. That was always Paul’s approach. Writing about an extreme hardship he faced, he said, “We were completely overwhelmed — beyond our strength — so that we even despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” (2 Cor. 1:8-9).
God often uses difficulty to deepen our dependence. So don’t ignore it. Don’t try to escape it. Look for God’s purpose in it.