Five Ways God Uses Your Problems - Daily Hope with Rick Warren - March 13, 2025
Five Ways God Uses Your Problems
By Rick Warren
“My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees. Your instructions are more valuable to me than millions in gold and silver.” Psalm 119:71-72 (NLT)
Life is a series of problem-solving opportunities. The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you, depending on how you respond to them.
When most people encounter difficulty, they react impulsively or become resentful. They don’t pause to consider what benefit their problems might bring. As a result, they never see how God wants to use problems for good in their lives.
There are five main ways that God uses the problems in your life. I want you to understand what they are so that, next time you face difficulty, you can be on the lookout for how God is working.
God uses problems to DIRECT you. Sometimes God lights a fire under you to get you moving. Problems can point you in a new direction and motivate you to change. Is God trying to get your attention? As Proverbs 20:30 says, “Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways” (GNT).
God uses problems to INSPECT you. People are like teabags: If you want to know what's inside them, just drop them into hot water! Has God ever tested your faith with a problem? What did that problem reveal about you? James 1:2-3 says, “When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience” (NCV).
God uses problems to CORRECT you. Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. When you were a child, your parents likely told you not to touch a hot stove. But you probably didn’t actually learn the lesson until you ignored their instruction and were burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something—like health, money, or a relationship—by losing it. That was true for the author of Psalm 119: “My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees. Your instructions are more valuable to me than millions in gold and silver” (Psalm 119:71-72 NLT).
God uses problems to PROTECT you. A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious. A few years ago, a friend of mine was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem—but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when his boss’s actions were uncovered. He was able to say like Joseph did, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20 NIV).
God uses problems to PERFECT you. Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders: “We know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character” (Romans 5:3-4 NLT). God is far more interested in your character than your comfort. Your relationship to God and your character are the only two things you're going to take with you into eternity.
You’re going to experience difficulties. Everyone does. When you do, remember that you have a choice. You can let those difficulties defeat you. Or you can choose to let God direct, inspect, correct, protect, and perfect you through them!
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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