When a parent sends a child to college, it requires a great investment.
Obviously that parent hopes his child will apply herself to the rigors
of her training. Why? Does he hope she will graduate, come home,
hang her diploma on the wall, then sit around the house watching
television? No! That parent hopes his child will make his investment
pay off by starting a good career.

Likewise, when the U.S. military offers a free education to an enlisted
soldier, those years of education are considered an investment.
The soldier is told, "After you're educated, your nation and government
want a certain amount of your time." That trained soldier is expected
to serve in the armed forces for a number of years in order to justify
the investment.

So it is with the Lord and our afflictions. Everything you go through
as a Christian is a training exercise behind which God has a divine
purpose. He did not save you so that you could cruise into paradise
on a luxury liner; He saved you to prepare you to be of use in His
kingdom. The moment you were born again, He enrolled you in His
school of suffering. And every affliction, every trial, is another lesson
in the curriculum.

Some Christians are in kindergarten. Their afflictions are not difficult
to understand and their tests are much easier to endure. Others
are in grade school, and they quickly learn that their tests have
become a little tougher to face and harder to understand. Others
are in college, and their afflictions are much more severe and more
difficult to figure out. Still others are in postgraduate school, with
years of hard afflictions behind them and many difficult tests
looming before them. Their afflictions are the toughest of their
lives, and they realize they need Holy Ghost strength to deal with
them all.

My point is, God wants veterans of spiritual warfare - people who
have been through many afflictions - to prove His faithfulness to
the next generation. And every affliction we endure is an investment
He is making in us as His veterans.

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth
him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19).

-Original source-

http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/18496

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon