God Does Not Want You to Be a Fragile Christian
God uses suffering to make us strong and resilient, not weak and fragile
God does not want you to be a fragile Christian. Let that sink in for a moment. God does not want you to fall to pieces every time hard things happen. He doesn’t want you collapsing under pressure or spiraling into despair when trials arrive at your door. That’s not his design for you, and it’s not the promise of his word.
Romans 5:3-4 says, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
There’s a divine progression here. Suffering isn’t random cruelty. It has a purpose. God uses it to produce endurance in you—the strength to take a punch and keep going. That endurance then gets forged into godly character. And that character produces a hope that doesn’t waver when the next storm rolls in.
Think about the strongest Christians you know. The ones who are unflappable. Steady. Rock-solid in their faith. I’ll bet you my paycheck they’ve been through some hard things. They’ve cried rivers of tears. They’ve poured their hearts out to God in the dark hours. And God used all of that pain to turn their spines into steel.
This is the typical way God works. Show me a godly, steadfast saint who’s been walking faithfully for forty years, and I’ll show you a man or woman who has been made strong through suffering.
On the other hand, show me a Christian who’s always had the good life, who’s had everything handed to them on a silver platter, and who’s never really been tested—and very often (though not always) you’ll find someone who hasn’t learned endurance yet. They’re fragile. They haven’t had their weakness trained out of them.
Now here’s the hard truth: godly Christian character is not forged in a Sunday school class. You don’t become unshakeable by listening to podcasts about perseverance or reading books about trials. Those things help, for sure, but they’re just one piece of the puzzle. The other piece, the one we don’t like to acknowledge, is that God beats these truths into your soul through pain.
That’s an unfortunate reality, but it is the reality. Godly character is very often forged in the flames of adversity.
The Wrong Response
Here’s where we need to get honest. When suffering comes—and it will come—you have a choice to make. Many Christians today don’t make the right choice. We’ve gotten so comfortable, so soft, that we feel like we’re being uniquely afflicted by God whenever hard things happen.
We may not like it, but it’s the truth: this is just the way life is.
Nobody wants to suffer. Nobody wants to lose their job. Nobody wants sick kids. Nobody wants to get cancer. Nobody wants marriage trouble or financial ruin or chronic pain. But when it happens, you’ve got to make a decision about how to handle it.
If you’re whining and complaining and grumbling against God, if you’re getting bitter, wallowing in self-pity, crying “woe is me” every time life gets hard—my friend, you need to repent. I know that sounds harsh. God is not honored by a grumbling spirit.
Not only is that response a sinful lack of faith, it’s also a missed opportunity for growth. God brought this trial into your life for a reason. He’s working to make you stronger. He’s working endurance into your soul, forging character in you, anchoring hope in you. But if you respond the wrong way, you’ll miss all of it. You’ll just get bitter and angry and envious of others who seem to have it easier.
There are no humility points for falling apart. There’s no virtue in being fragile.
The Right Response
So what’s the right response?
As crazy as it sounds—and I know it sounds crazy—here’s what you do when you face suffering. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, gather yourself, and rejoice.
I’m not saying you have to be glad for your suffering. I’m saying you can choose to rejoice in your suffering. In other words, you can give thanks in it. You can pray, “Lord, your word says this trial is for my good. I don’t like it. I don’t want it. But I’m choosing to trust you in it. Thank you. I’m choosing to rejoice in this suffering as an act of faith.”
Then you look at that painful circumstance directly and greet it as a friend: “welcome, suffering, my old friend. I did not ask nor want your visit. But I welcome you nonetheless, because God sent you to me. Here I am. Accomplish in me the purpose for which God sent you.”
When you do this, by faith, scripture promises that endurance, character, and hope will begin to accrue in your life. The suffering will produce endurance. The endurance will produce character. The character will produce hope. And you will become one of those precious saints that others look to and say, “I want to be a rock like that. I want to be the kind of man or woman that knows how to suffer well, like they do.”
The Promise
Do you have the faith to trust God with your suffering? Do you believe he will make it glorious in his time?
God wants you to be resilient and strong. He wants you to be able to take a punch and keep going. He wants you to be an unconquerable Christian—not because you’re tough in yourself, but because his Spirit dwells in you and his love has been poured into your heart.
Right now, you might be going through trials that are rocking your world. You’re hanging on for dear life. You’re in the thick of something menacing and awful. So here’s what I want you to know: God is using this. He’s not being cruel. He doesn’t hate you. He’s making you into the saint he’s called you to be.
One day, if you respond rightly to this suffering, you’ll be one of those unflappable old Christians. Steadfast. Firm. Strong. The kind of person whose faith has been tested by fire and proven genuine. The kind of person others look to for an example of how to endure.
And one day not too far from now, Christ will wipe away every tear, and all pain will be no more, and you’ll stand before your Savior with a hope that was forged through suffering, endurance, and character. You’ll know in your bones what it means to be saved by grace, and you’ll have the scars to prove that God’s promises are true.
That’s the kind of Christian God wants you to be.
Not fragile. Not brittle. Not quick to despair. You’ll be strong. Resilient. Hopeful. Unshakeable.
So take a deep breath, saint of God. Whatever trial you’re facing, God is with you. He will not leave you. He will not forsake you. And he will use every bit of this suffering to make you more like Christ.
Upcoming Conference in Ridgecrest, NC
This May 7-9, I’ll be speaking at the Manhood and Womanhood Conference: The Glory of God in the Creation Order, a national conference hosted by Church and Family Life.
Other speakers include Dr. Joel Beeke, Dr. Tom Ascol, and Scott Aniol, among many others.
The conference website says,
God has displayed His glory throughout creation—a beautiful glory clearly seen in how He made man and woman.
In answer to the gender confusion of our day, Church and Family Life is pleased to be hosting Manhood and Womanhood: A Conference on God’s Glory in the Creation Order, to be held on May 7-9, 2026 in Ridgecrest, North Carolina.
The goals of the conference are threefold:
Proclaim the power and beauty of God’s created order for masculinity and femininity
Rejoice in it!
Mobilize us to action to fulfill the heavenly vision
If you’re in the area and would like to attend the conference, it’s looking like it will be a fantastic event for the whole family. I hope to see you there!
More info can be found here.
