3 Ways Adversity Helps You



“Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.”

– Zig Ziglar

Course Correction

When Jesus sent the disciples into a boat once, He was actually sending them into a storm (Mark 6:45). The disciples didn’t know this, but Jesus did, and God always knows what’s ahead of us before we do. It doesn’t matter because He is sovereign over the storm. God may allow adversity in our life to help us make a course correction. Maybe we were heading down the wrong path and God allowed adversity to give us a course correction. In this way, adversity has helped us more than hurt us. It’s all a matter of trusting God.

Toward Perfection

Of course we’ll never be perfect this side of the kingdom, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for perfection. Thankfully, we are seen as perfectly righteous in God’s eyes thanks to Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:21), but adversity has its work in us just like a sander knocks the rust off of metal. It may make lots of noise, there’ll be plenty of sparks, and there’ll be plenty of heat, but the adversity of a belt sander makes the restoration of the metal successful, but even a great pearl is formed when the clam deals with small irritations.

Given Reflection

When men get up in the morning, most of them shave. I know I do, but I couldn’t do it without a mirror. At least it would be harder, so the reflection of the mirror helps me make sure I do a thorough job, so even though I’m somewhat of a mess in the morning, I need the mirror’s reflection to comb my hair and shave. It’s not the most beautiful thing to look at in the mirror, as I’m in my mid-60’s, but the reflection helps me do what I know I needs to done, and that’s clean up. In the same way, God give us times to reflect on our life in order to help us make a course correction, strive toward perfection, because we’ve been given reflection.

Conclusion

I sometimes trim my trees so that they uild stronger branches.  This enables them to endure the severe storms when they come…and they always do. If not for the adversity of the wind on the trees, the trees would never be strong enough to survive our strong Kansas winds, so Zig Ziglar is right; “Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.”