Hebrews 12: 1-13 talks about the suffering of discipline from God. It states that God disciplines us just as a father disciplines his child because we are His children. He does not punish us, He disciplines us. Just like my mom use to take away my tv privilege if I did something wrong or something that could cause me harm or trouble in some way, God disciplines in the same manner. He may allow our peace to be taken for a period of time so that we can see that we need to make a change of something that is disturbing our peace. He may let us go through troubles that He could prevent just so that we learn a lesson of something that we need to do or need to stop doing so that we will not have a potential problem in the future. He will allow us to endure some things so that we can learn the ways of right living or what is best for us and our lives.

He does not like to see us suffer but He would rather watch us suffer for a little while and then watch us become victorious instead of us suffering for our entire lives. He knows that if we are trained how to best live our lives in this way, then we will be victorious in all things, having our best life. He knows the joy and peace that we will have in the end and He gives us strength to make it to the end of our race.

I find these scriptures very encouraging in my trails and troubles. They help me remember that there is more than likely a lesson that I need to learn in the situation. They remind me that I am not going through it because God is mad at me and punishing me for something. It reminds me that if Jesus could take all the hostility from people that He endured then I can too. It reminds me to get a new mindset and to focus on Jesus and accomplishing what I need to accomplish so that when I am weak, Jesus will make me strong.

I am not saying that the troubles we face are because of God or that He is causing the problem. He does not punish us. What I am saying is that He may allow us to endure some things so that we can learn a lesson or grow in an area. He will never put more on us than we can handle and knows just what we need in order to come up higher in life in some way. We have to make sure that we look at the situation with the right mindset so that we can see what it is that needs to be done, if anything needs to be done. Like I said, sometimes it may be that He wants us to see just how strong we are by being able to handle some tough situations.

If you are facing some kind of trial or trouble, take a step back and look at the situation to see if there is something that you need to learn to help you have your best life.