How To Respond to Adversity (Part 1 of 2)

Understanding Adversity

Adversity is anything that brings difficulty—something that demands more from us than normal circumstances require. Synonyms include suffering, trials, and tribulation. These are incredibly challenging experiences for believers in Jesus Christ.

The New Testament makes it clear that adversity is guaranteed in the Christian life. Faith is a gift from God, granting us life and belief. Yet, it is also granted to us to suffer for His name's sake. As James chapter 1 teaches:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Trials are not optional or due to karma; they are part of our faith journey.

The Race Analogy: Response Matters More Than Circumstances

Imagine two runners in a time trial. The first, out of shape, crumbles after 100 yards, overwhelmed and unable to continue. The second runs with endurance, pushing past obstacles. The circumstances—the race—remain the same. The difference lies in how they experience it.

Psalm 13 teaches us that while circumstances may not change, our experience of them can change significantly, leading to joy and satisfaction. James calls us to a mental exercise: consider trials with joy—not calling evil good, but finding joy in how we experience them through God's perspective, which is wisdom.

We are not to become satisfied with the circumstances themselves, but to embrace a psalmist lifestyle—experiencing life in a way that brings satisfaction even if situations never improve. Our lives can change for the better.

The Hard Question: What If Circumstances Never Change?

If my circumstances never change—what then? If my spouse never becomes a Christian, if singleness persists, if job frustrations continue, if healing never comes—what will I do?

The Septuagint titles Psalm 13 "to the end," echoing David's cry: "Will you forget me forever? To the end?" Insert your own circumstance: If this is my lot from now until the end, what will I do?

Crying Out to God: David's Honest Questions

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed against him"; lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

The psalmist cries out to God—a real, scriptural response. Every believer can relate; the Psalms capture our emotions, from praise to despair.

David's questions reveal the intensity of his adversity:

• It feels like his lot for life: "Until when, Lord?"
• God seems to have forgotten him, not mindful of his pain.
• He must take counsel in his soul—figuring out what to do, how to resolve, and plan action.
• Sorrow grieves him all day long.
• His enemies exalt over him, pouring salt in the wound.

Yet David cries out without complaining or bitterness. He seeks genuine answers, not antagonism toward God's sovereignty. It is Christian to bring pain to God honestly, desiring closeness to Him.

God's Sovereignty in Adversity

God cannot forget (omniscient) or hide (omnipresent), yet He sovereignly allows us to experience Him this way to:

• Create intense longing for Him, growing our love and value for God.
• Reveal our intense need for Him: "Enlighten my eyes, or I sleep the sleep of death."
• Apply biblical truths to our lives.

Adversity is fully in God's sovereign hands. David pleads: Look with grace, hear and respond, shine on me—or I'm doomed. The outcome rests entirely on God.

Nothing is so small or trivial as to escape the attention of God's sovereign control. Nothing is so great as to be beyond His power to control it.

As Jerry Bridges notes, every detail—from sparrows to the cross—is under God's control (Matthew 10:29; John 19:10-11). Understanding His sovereignty motivates prayer, for He works all things according to His counsel (Ephesians 1:11).

Trusting in God's Lovingkindness

But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Even without a recorded response from God, David trusts—not a casual "let's see what happens," but confident expectation in God's mercy. He recognizes God's past bountiful dealings, abundant life amid suffering—a gospel truth.

In pain, he worships. This psalm is a song of trust, rejoicing, and singing. If suffering persists, we respond as the psalmist: Suffering aids sanctification, ceases sin (1 Peter 4), teaches obedience (Hebrews 5), and pales against sin's danger. Early Christians rejoiced to suffer for Christ, praying for more.

Salvation is sufficient reason to rejoice. Enjoy the Lord, freed from sin's weight to experience Him deeply. As David: emotions raw, circumstances hard, yet response: "I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation."

Salvation as Sufficient Reason for Hope

If God were to never do anything else good in our lives from this point forward, He has already done exceedingly more because He has given us salvation. Beloved, hold on to this hope. As John Calvin mentioned, we experience sufferings so that we would despise the present life, not get comfortable with what we have here, and always be excited and encouraged for what is to come—a life of enjoying God forever, completely freed from sin, where there is no more pain or suffering, and we have the ever-present wonderful and amazing God, whose entire purpose in creating us was so that we would enjoy Him forever. That is the hope.

Knowing God's Greatness in Suffering

To know the greatness and goodness of God even in the midst of suffering—He is the God of the storms. Everything that God has done up to this point in your life is enough reason to continue to trust Him and be satisfied with Him.