As for me, I said in my haste and alarm, I am cut off from before Your eyes. But You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to You for aid. – Psalm 31:22, Amplified Bible (AMP)

Here is where our anxiety originates: our haste. When we want something now that we cannot have now – like relief from our pain – we fret. We question God’s goodness. We wonder what we did wrong. Such concerns are natural, but they are also a sign that we still have a long way to go before we are transformed into the image of Christ.

James 1:4 teaches us that patience is a necessary ingredient of the Christlike character. James 1:3 teaches us what it takes to develop patience: the trial of our faith. With trial comes pain, and we naturally want our pain to be relieved NOW! But when the pain doesn’t subside on our timetable, we have a choice. We can become angry with and bitter towards God. Or, we can ask God to give us the patient ability to endure until His perfect timing for pain relief arrives. As 1 John 5:14-15 teaches, God will grant anything we ask that is in agreement with His will, and if we ask Him to give us the patience that He wants us to have in the first place, we can count on Him giving it to us. Then, with patience woven into our character by the trial of our faith, we’ll become more like Christ, our model for how to live both now and forever.

It’s never fun to suffer. While in the midst of the trial, however, try, for just a moment, to step away emotionally from the pain and recognize what the trial truly is: a mechanism to bring you closer to God. Understanding this truth is what enabled Paul to say in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “I rather glory in my infirmities.” Applying this truth to your own life will enable you to say the same.