Destined for Troubles and Glory: Why Suffering Precedes Shining
- Jack Selcher
- Jan 27, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: 23 hours ago
Summary
Christians are destined for both troubles and glory. Scripture repeatedly warns that suffering is normal in a fallen, hostile world, yet God uses hardship to advance His purposes and produce spiritual fruit. Trials become the pressure that transforms lives into instruments of ministry. Compared to the eternal glory awaiting believers, present suffering is light and temporary. If we want to shine like the sun in God’s Kingdom, we should expect and trust God through troubles.
The phrase, anatomy is destiny “has been interpreted to reflect the idea that societal expectations and norms associated with gender can constrain or dictate an individual's opportunities, choices, and identity.”1 Most places and times, men have significant advantages over women. You have probably noticed!
Destined for Troubles and Glory
Christian men and women, however, are equally destined for troubles and glory. We rejoice in the glory to come, but not the troubles. The glory can’t arrive too soon, but we would cancel all orders of troubles! We prefer to think that troubles are behind us with only glory ahead. I certainly do.
The Source of Our Troubles
The troubles come because we live in a fallen world under God’s curse (Romans 8:20), and a rebellious world that hates and persecutes Jesus and those who are His (John 15:20, 25).
The Apostle Paul wrote, “But you know that we are destined for such troubles” (1 Thessalonians 3:3 NLT). He traced their source to the persecutions and resistance the Thessalonian Christians faced because of their faith.
Scripture Says Troubles Are Normal
Troubles should not surprise Christians. The Bible frequently warns that they are coming (Mark 4:17, 10:30; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Romans 8:17-18; 2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 4:12-13).
Why Troubles Advance God’s Purposes
Troubles are causes for celebration because they further God’s purposes (Acts 11:19; Romans 5:3; 2 Corinthians 1:4, 4:17). When life gets tough, we should rejoice because God is working to expand His Kingdom.
From Coal to Diamonds of Ministry
He specializes in turning the coal of troubles into the diamonds of ministry fruit. Heat and pressure create natural and spiritual diamonds.
I admit that celebration is not my first reaction. It is more like, “Why is this happening to me?” Yet, my life-altering, ultra-painful tests have paved previously unimagined roads of ministry opportunities and enabled spiritual harvests that wouldn’t have existed apart from those tests.
My writing ministry in retirement falls into that category with vastly more spiritual fruit than my active ministry years combined. We are destined for troubles and glory.
“Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18 NLT). If we collect all our troubles, no matter how excruciating, and pile them on the postal scale of life calibrated in ounces, the scale handles them easily.
Then we take the glory that is to come and pile it on the truck scale that measures in tons. The weight of glory exceeds its capacity! “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom” (Matthew 13:43 NLT). If you want to shine like the sun, expect troubles!
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