Today we are so fortunate to have a guest writer at Only By Prayer. Brittany Jean is a nineteen-year-old college student living in the Midwest with her parents and younger brother. She is currently majoring in pre-law and is planning on using that degree for ministry. 
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit. Psalm 34:18
The Hebrew definition for the word brokenhearted can be defined as anxious, stricken, destroyed, or shattered (The Strong’s NIV Exhaustive Concordance). Throughout the Old and New Testament, many of the people that would be defined as being close to God, such as David and Job, went through severe trials and hardships, leading them to feel brokenhearted. This shows that we are not alone! God’s faithful children have gone through moments of depression and brokenheartedness and have come out even stronger and closer to God than before!
Why does God allow His children to go through hardships and trials?
In Philippians 1:12-14 Paul is in prison, but instead of complaining about his situation, he rejoices because he knows that what he is going through is only encouraging others to also take a stand for Christ. Many times, God will allow us to go through hardships in order to encourage and be a testimony to others. God can also use these times in our lives to draw us closer to Him, because He loves us and longs to be near to us.
How does God show His protection by allowing us to go through trials?
In Psalm 119:67, David says “before I was afflicted, I went astray.” This shows that sometimes God allows trials into our lives so that we can learn to rely on Him and not on the things of this world. When God takes away everything we hold to be important, our only choice left is to lean on Him, and because He is madly in love with us, He will bring us through the wilderness—sometimes in order to bring us closer to Him.
How should this impact every Christian’s life?
2 Corinthians 1:4 says “[God] comforts us in all affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” God does not only use pastors and counselors to help hurting people; He uses all Christians who allow Him to use their hurt to help other people. While sometimes we may not understand why we go through what we go through, God sees the whole picture and may be using us to help someone else in need.
What other examples does the Bible give us on why we go through trials?
Can God still use us to help others in the midst of our hurting, or do we need to wait until we are healed and through our trial?
Why do you think so?
Was there a time in your life when someone helped you because they went through a similar situation?
How did they make a difference?
Is there someone who is hurting that you can help because of your experience?
What can you do?
I believe this will be helpful to many who go along the journey of life. We know our God cares even in the midst of hard times.