Reverend Randy Pope
"The Three Most Unwanted Gifts from God"
2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Proverbs 30:7-8, James 1:2-4 

When we go through difficult times, it reveals our view of God and his relationship with us. It's our presuppositions about God which lays the faulty groundwork for failing faith. To better understand our presuppositions, we must ascertain our view of man, God, and God's ways. Do you view man as good, good with a little bad, bad with a little good, or all bad? Do you view God as being a little, significantly, or totally responsible for salvation? Do you conceive of God's methods as making redeemed man potentially, partially, or fully righteous? Understanding the authentic gospel corrects all three of these perspectives: man is wholly evil; God is completely responsible for salvation; and the redeeming work of Christ makes us fully righteous before God. In understanding this, we can then accept that God uses (and, indeed, must use) suffering, weakness, and denied abundance for the sanctification of his children. They are necessary catalysts of growth for the believer. 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Proverbs 30:8
New American Standard Bible

8 Keep deception and lies far from me,
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is my portion,

James 1:2-4
New American Standard Bible

2 Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various [a]trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [b]endurance. 4 And let [c]endurance have its perfect [d]result, so that you may be [e]perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.