How To Respond to Adversity

Understanding Adversity

Adversity is anything that brings difficulty—something that demands more from us than normal circumstances require. It includes suffering, trials, and tribulations that believers in Jesus Christ face.

The New Testament guarantees adversity in the Christian life. Faith is a gift from God, but so is the privilege to suffer for His name's sake.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Trials are not random or avoidable through good behavior. 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, collapses after 100 yards, overwhelmed. The second runs with endurance, pushing through. The circumstances—the race—remain the same. The difference is how they experience it.

Psalm 13 teaches that while circumstances may not change, our experience of them can. We can find joy not in calling evil good, but in viewing trials from God's perspective—through the lens of wisdom.

Embrace a psalmist lifestyle: satisfied not with circumstances, but with how we navigate them. Our lives can improve even if situations do not.

The Hard Question: What If Circumstances Never Change?

If your spouse never becomes a Christian, if singleness persists, if your job stays miserable, if healing never comes—what then? The Septuagint titles Psalm 13 "To the End," echoing David's cry: Is this my lot forever?

Insert your circumstance: If this never changes, what will you do?

First Response: Cry Out to God

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
(Psalm 13:1-2)

David cries out honestly. Every believer can relate—the Psalms capture our rollercoaster emotions. "Until when, Lord?"

His adversity is so intense it feels permanent, as if God has forgotten him, requiring constant soul-searching, daily grief, and watching enemies triumph. It demands counsel: figuring out what to do, how to resolve it, planning action.

Yet David cries out without bitterness or sin. He questions seriously, seeking God—not accusing His sovereignty. This is Christian: bring real pain to your Father genuinely, desiring closeness.

God cannot forget (omniscient) or hide (omnipresent), but sovereignly allows us to feel this way to:

• Create intense longing for Him, growing our love.
• Reveal our desperate need: "Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death" (Psalm 13:3).
• Apply biblical truths to our lives.

Adversity is fully in God's sovereign hands—not a bump derailing us. David pleads: Look with grace, hear and respond, shine on me—or I'm doomed.

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... No detail of your life is too insignificant for your heavenly Father's attention and no circumstance is so big that He cannot control it. (Jerry Bridges)

Prayer flows from recognizing God's sovereignty over every detail (Ephesians 1:11; Lamentations 3). If anything escapes His control, we cannot trust Him—but Scripture assures we can.

The Psalmist's Trust: Rejoice Amid Adversity

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me. (Psalm 13:5-6)

Even without God's recorded reply, David trusts—not a vague "hope so," but confident expectation in God's mercy. He recalls God's past bountiful dealings, like Christ's abundant life.

In pain, he worships. This psalm is a song. He will rejoice in salvation, sing to the Lord.

The Answer: Enjoy God in Suffering

If circumstances never change, salvation is reason enough to rejoice. Suffering frees us from sin's grip—worse than any trial. Sin silently destroys; suffering sanctifies, teaching obedience as in Christ (Hebrews 5:8; 12:2).

Early Christians rejoiced in suffering for Christ, even praying for more (Acts 5:41; 1 Peter 4:1). The cross—history's worst event—was joy for our salvation.

Enjoy the Lord. Trust His lovingkindness. Rejoice in salvation. God has already dealt bountifully. Despise this life, long for eternity—sin-free, enjoying God forever (John Calvin).

Everything God has done is enough to trust Him through storms. He is the God of the storm.