Facing Life’s Challenges with Faith: How Judaism Transforms Trials into Purpose

The difficulty in dealing with challenges is often compounded by the sadness and discouragement that a person often adds to the situation. These emotions often arise from internal resistance to the test, for example when a person does not understand why this specific challenge was given to them.

When an individual lives with the correct worldview, understanding that they came into this world with a unique and specific mission, and that all the suffering and difficulties they encounter are tailor-made for their benefit and for the fulfillment of that mission, it lifts a great deal of the emotional burden usually associated with hardship. This is true for several reasons, which we will now explain:

1. Strength through Divine Mission:
From time to time, a person may feel that they’ve reached their limit. The suffering overwhelms them, and they can no longer cope. If however they understand that they are in this world as a messenger of God, then "the agent of a person is like the person himself." That is to say, the sender (God) instills power in the one sent. Because the Almighty — who is omnipotent, has sent them into this world to face these specific trials, it means that they’ve been endowed with limitless strength. God gives them immense inner resources to succeed and they are not walking the path of suffering alone. God is with them. Furthermore, they were chosen from all humanity to fulfill this vital mission. This awareness instills powerful strength to persevere, and even when pushed to the brink, they are willing to give their all to carry out their task.

2. Seeing the Trials as Tools for Purpose:
When a person knows they are God’s emissary with a unique role, they also realize that God has given them the exact conditions and circumstances needed to fulfill their mission. Every challenge they encounter is part of the toolkit required for their purpose. Through these very hardships, they will fulfill their mission. As such, it’s not accurate to say, “It’s not going well for me,” or “I’m failing.” Rather, the exact areas in which they struggle are the gateways through which their unique mission is realized, despite, and because of, the difficulty.

3. Embracing Your Divine Assignment:
A person should reflect: the very trials that I’m experiencing are the unique investment that God, in His wisdom, has made in me. This is the terrain on which I am meant to rise. This is my personal mission on Earth, one that no other soul, from Adam to the Messiah, can fulfill. God is with me on this journey and gives me strength with every challenge I face.