The prayer of a person going through very difficult times has been turned into a song by Margaret Becker and Keith Getty. Here are the words:

Jesus, draw me ever nearer
As I labor through the storm;
You have called me to this passage,
And I’ll follow, though I’m worn.

Most of us know that God allows difficulties in our lives for a reason—well, at least we know it in theory, though when the seas of life are rough, our attitudes may not demonstrate that we believe it.

In her well-known devotional book Streams in the Desert, Mrs. Charles Cowman writes about trials, that “They are [God’s] mountains. He puts them there.”[1]

But it’s a phrase in the last verse of the song that especially speaks to me. The words go,

Let the treasures of the trialForm within me as I go….

The “treasures of the trial.”  Imagine calling trials a treasure. A treasure is something valuable, something costly, something precious. The apostle Paul says almost the same thing when he calls our trials “an eternal glory.” He writes, “Therefore we do not lose heart…. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17).

One of the treasures that trials form within us is perseverance. James declared: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (James 1:2-3). Perseverance is the determination to carry on, the resolve not to give up.

The Apostle Paul tells us that,” suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4).

Periods of testing and trial come to all of us. May God develop within us treasures from those difficult times.

[1] Exact printing unknown.