We’ve all experienced the frustration and disappointment of something in our lives taking a turn for the worse. The only guarantee in life is that it will never be trouble-free; whenever things are going great, a painful situation can develop. The world tells us that “into every life, a little rain must fall.” Platitudes aside, these rainy times are the exact time for God to intervene and turn the bad into good.

God isn’t the author of bad things, but He uses them to mature us spiritually and to teach us to depend on Him in all situations. Most people don’t see it that way; however, most people don’t know God, His nature, or how He operates. There’s nothing in existence big enough to outdo His goodness. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28, NLT).

Even after getting born again, nothing in life will ever be perfect; it’s unrealistic to expect otherwise. The new believer who is still a babe in Christ may not understand this right away. It takes months, or even years, to reach this level of spiritual maturity. Spending time with other believers matures our thought processes, changes our perspective, and helps us grow up in Christ. “This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children...” (Ephesians 4:13, 14, NLT).

With maturity comes wisdom. There are two kinds of wisdom: what the world tells us is wise, and the perfect, eternal wisdom that comes only from God. His kind of wisdom is something the world simply can’t understand. “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:6, 7, NKJV). Trusting in God’s wisdom, even when things seem hopeless, allows Him to work in our lives to create something beautiful from even the biggest disasters.

When trouble hits, worldly thinking can cause us to blame God. The maturity from the Holy Spirit reveals that God isn’t the only influence in the world; the freewill choices we make and the work the devil is doing are also factors. When the enemy sees us renewing our minds and pursuing a godly lifestyle, he’s definitely going to launch a counterattack. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). This happened repeatedly to the apostle Paul, and we can expect it to happen to us as well.

We mustn’t avoid trouble, though; God uses it as a tool to burn out all tendencies to trust in ourselves and teach us to rely on Him to bring us through. As our heavenly Father, He doesn’t take away all the painful things, but instead uses the trials we go through to strengthen us and teach us to trust Him in everything. With this mindset, no matter how hard the storms of life rage, we’ll be able to withstand them.