"The Awesome Power of Endurance" in American Sign LanguageSample

Your Troubles Are Part of Your Ministry
By Rick Warren

“Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.” (2 Corinthians 1:6-7 NLT)

If you want to learn to endure the problems and difficulties of life, you have to use your experience to help others. The Bible says, “Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer” (2 Corinthians 1:6-7 NLT).

Did you know that sometimes God allows you to go through problems for the benefit of other people? He lets you go through a period of darkness, depression, or discouragement so that you can turn around and comfort others with the very comfort God gives you in the midst of your trials.

In fact, our greatest life messages always come out of our weaknesses, not our strengths. Who can better help somebody who’s recovering from alcoholism than somebody who’s been an alcoholic? Who can better help somebody who is going through the pain of a divorce than somebody who went through the pain of a divorce? And who can better help the parent of a child with Down syndrome than another parent of a child with Down syndrome?

The thing that you regret or want to hide or ignore is the very thing that God wants to use in your life not only to help you grow in spiritual maturity but also as a ministry to help other people.

The Bible says that love never gives up, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love is thinking about other people. Love is making your need my need, your problem my problem. Love is giving people what they need, not what they deserve.

That’s what Jesus did. He suffered all kinds of problems and shame and went to the cross — not for his benefit but for our salvation.

Talk It Over

What difficulty in your life do you think God has allowed to happen in order to teach you endurance?

How can you use your life experience to minister to others?

What is something you considered a weakness that God may be able to use to help other people?