Do Challenges Bring us Closer to God?

By Daniel P.  God loves us very much. He wants us to experience more than a life of just pleasure or ease. He wants us to experience true joy, the kind of joy that he experiences. He wants us to experience a Christ-like personality and a Christ-like heart. Now to accomplish this, God intentionally created this Earth and our life on earth so that we would have the developmental experiences we need to learn what God wants us to learn. There is no way that we are able to learn what he wants us to learn if we never experience pain, disillusionment, suffering, or doubt. How can any of us learn compassion or empathy if the people around us never suffer? How can any of us learn faith if we never have to walk in the dark? How would any of us learn forgiveness if we are never hurt or offended? How can we ever learn service if the people around us don’t have any needs? How can we ever learn patience if we never have to wait? You see, we could never learn any of the true Christian virtues if we have nothing but a steady diet of ease and comfort. So when we experience pain in our lives, we shouldn’t be asking well how can a loving and all-powerful God allow this to happen to us? Rather, we should be asking, what does God want me to learn from this? When we come to Christ in our pain, we find that He truly does understand us. It was not easy for Him either. When we come to the Savior, we find that He truly does walk with us. He gives us increased capacity to carry heavy loads and most importantly, He molds and shapes our character, so that we become more like Him.