The following is an excerpt from a book about suffering written by Timothy Downing, Missionary in Ecuador. The book is titled: The Storm Will ComeBuilding Foundations for Inevitable Suffering
The Architecture of Spiritual Formation
The transition from understanding the five pillars of endurance to actually constructing them in our lives requires more than intellectual assent to correct principles. Like any architectural project, the building of spiritual foundations demands consistent application of proper techniques over extended periods of time. The daily disciplines of Christian spirituality serve as the tools by which believers gradually construct the kind of character that can withstand life’s inevitable storms without being destroyed by them.
These disciplines are not arbitrary spiritual exercises imposed by religious tradition but practical methods for cultivating the attitudes, perspectives, and resources that the five pillars require. Morning and evening examinations develop the observer consciousness necessary for the third person pause. Scripture meditation on the lives of suffering saints provides models for the paradox of surrender and the embrace of productive pain. The practice of gratitude as spiritual warfare strengthens the capacity to maintain unassailable core identity regardless of circumstances. Intercessory prayer develops the outward focus that enables the transition from victim to agent.
The key insight is that spiritual formation, like physical fitness, cannot be achieved through occasional intense efforts but requires consistent, moderate application over long periods of time. The believer who attempts to develop spiritual resilience only during crises will discover that such resources cannot be created instantly when they are most needed. They must be cultivated during seasons of relative peace if they are to be available during seasons of trial.
This understanding runs counter to much contemporary thinking about spiritual growth, which often seeks dramatic transformation through peak experiences or intensive programs. While such experiences can indeed contribute to spiritual development, they cannot substitute for the patient, daily work of character formation that sustainable spiritual maturity requires.
The biblical warrant for this understanding comes from Jesus’ teaching about the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7:24-27. The wise man who built his house upon rock did not do so quickly or easily—rock foundations require more time and effort than sand foundations—but when the storms came, his house stood firm while his neighbor’s house collapsed. The difference lay not in the intensity of their building efforts but in the quality of their foundations and the consistency of their construction methods.
Morning and Evening Examinations: Bookends of Awareness
The practice of daily examination serves as the fundamental discipline for developing the kind of self-awareness that all other spiritual growth requires. Without honest, regular assessment of our interior condition, we remain vulnerable to self-deception, unconscious patterns of thought and behavior that undermine our spiritual progress, and gradual drift away from our stated values and commitments.
The morning examination focuses attention on preparation for the day ahead, while the evening examination reviews what has actually occurred. Together, they create what might be called “bookends of awareness”—structured opportunities for conscious reflection that prevent days from passing in mere reactive activity without intentional spiritual attention.
The Morning Examination: Preparing for Faithful Response
The morning examination begins with acknowledgment of divine presence and dependence upon divine grace for whatever the day may bring. This is not merely pious sentiment but practical recognition that spiritual maturity requires resources beyond natural human capacity. The believer who begins each day with conscious awareness of his need for divine assistance is less likely to be overwhelmed when circumstances exceed his natural ability to manage them.
The examination continues with honest assessment of current spiritual, emotional, and physical condition. How did last night’s sleep affect present alertness and emotional equilibrium? What concerns from yesterday remain unresolved and might affect today’s attitudes? What aspects of character seem particularly in need of attention based on recent experience?
This assessment should be conducted with compassionate honesty rather than harsh judgment. The goal is not self-condemnation but self-knowledge—clear understanding of present resources and limitations that can inform realistic planning for the day ahead. The individual who recognizes that he is beginning the day with unusual anxiety, physical fatigue, or emotional sensitivity can adjust his expectations and responses accordingly.
The morning examination also involves conscious consideration of the day’s likely challenges and opportunities. What situations might test the five pillars of endurance? What relationships might require extra patience or forgiveness? What responsibilities might tempt toward anxiety or controlling behavior? What opportunities might arise for service, growth, or witness?
This consideration is not anxious speculation about potential problems but wise preparation for faithful response to likely circumstances. Like the athlete who visualizes successful performance before competition or the musician who mentally rehearses difficult passages before performance, the believer who thoughtfully considers possible challenges is better equipped to respond to them constructively when they actually arise.
The morning examination concludes with specific prayers for grace to respond faithfully to whatever the day may bring. These prayers might include requests for patience with family members, wisdom in work decisions, compassion for those who are difficult to love, or courage to pursue necessary but challenging conversations. The key is to move from general requests for divine blessing to specific petitions for the particular virtues and resources that present circumstances seem likely to require.
The Evening Examination: Learning from Actual Experience
The evening examination reverses the morning’s forward focus by reviewing what has actually occurred during the day just completed. This review serves multiple purposes: it identifies patterns of response that support or undermine spiritual growth, it provides opportunity for confession and forgiveness where failures have occurred, and it offers thanksgiving for evidences of divine grace that might otherwise go unnoticed.
The examination begins with general review of the day’s events from the perspective of the five pillars of endurance. Where did circumstances arise that required acceptance rather than resistance? When did the third person pause prove helpful in maintaining perspective? What situations required discernment between productive and merely destructive pain? How did the shift from “Why me?” to “What now?” affect responses to difficulties? What challenged or confirmed the sense of unassailable core identity?
This review should be conducted with the same compassionate honesty that marks the morning examination. The goal is not to achieve perfect scores in spiritual performance but to learn from actual experience what supports and what hinders spiritual growth. The believer who consistently struggles with accepting unchangeable circumstances can develop specific practices for cultivating greater acceptance. The individual who finds it difficult to maintain third person perspective during emotional intensity can work on techniques for creating psychological distance during such moments.
The examination continues with specific attention to relationships encountered during the day. How did interactions with family members, colleagues, friends, and strangers reflect or contradict Christian love? Where were opportunities for service, encouragement, or witness seized or missed? What patterns of speech, attitude, or behavior supported or undermined the development of Christlike character?
This relational focus prevents spiritual formation from becoming merely individual self-improvement by maintaining attention to the fundamentally communal nature of Christian discipleship. The believer who grows in personal virtue while becoming less patient with family members or less compassionate toward struggling colleagues is not experiencing authentic spiritual maturation.
The evening examination includes specific confession of failures identified during the review process. This confession should be both honest about genuine wrongdoing and balanced by confidence in divine forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice. The goal is not self-flagellation but the kind of repentance that leads to amendment of life—genuine sorrow for sin that motivates concrete changes in thought and behavior.
Finally, the examination concludes with thanksgiving for evidences of divine grace observed during the day. These might include strength to handle challenges that seemed overwhelming in prospect, patience in situations that typically provoke anger, moments of unexpected joy or peace, opportunities to serve others, or simply the basic provisions of health, shelter, and sustenance that are easily taken for granted.
This discipline of gratitude serves as antidote to the natural human tendency to focus on what went wrong while overlooking what went well. It trains attention to recognize divine goodness in both extraordinary blessings and ordinary provisions, developing the kind of grateful heart that can find reasons for thanksgiving even during difficult seasons.
Scripture Meditation on Suffering Saints
The Bible provides an extensive gallery of individuals who faced significant trials and responded to them with varying degrees of faithfulness. Regular meditation on these examples serves multiple purposes in developing endurance: it provides models of faithful response to difficulty, it normalizes the experience of suffering in the life of faith, and it demonstrates how God works through human weakness to accomplish his purposes.
This meditation differs from general Bible study in its focused attention on how biblical figures navigated specific challenges and what resources sustained them during trials. The goal is not merely intellectual understanding of historical events but formation of the imagination through exposure to patterns of faithful endurance that can inform our own responses to difficulty.
Job: The School of Faithful Perplexity
Job’s story provides perhaps the most comprehensive biblical treatment of unexplained suffering and therefore deserves extended attention in any program of meditation on suffering saints. Job’s example is particularly valuable because it combines honest expression of human emotion with maintaining faith despite the absence of explanation for his trials.
Job models several crucial elements of faithful suffering. He maintains integrity in the face of friends’ accusations, refusing to confess sins he has not committed even when such confession might provide explanatory comfort. He expresses his emotions honestly to God without abandoning his fundamental trust in divine character. He continues to worship and serve God even when such service provides no obvious benefit and may actually seem to increase his suffering.
Perhaps most importantly, Job demonstrates what might be called “faithful perplexity”—the ability to live with unanswered questions while maintaining basic trust in God’s goodness and wisdom. This capacity proves essential for believers facing trials that do not fit neat theological categories or admit of easy solutions.
Meditation on Job’s example might focus on specific aspects of his response that seem particularly relevant to current struggles. The believer dealing with criticism from well-meaning but misguided friends can study Job’s responses to Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. The individual struggling to maintain faith when prayers seem unanswered can examine Job’s continued worship despite apparent divine silence. The person tempted toward bitterness because of perceived injustice can consider Job’s refusal to “curse God and die” despite his wife’s counsel.
David: The Dynamics of Lament and Trust
The Psalms attributed to David provide intimate glimpses into the interior life of someone who faced extensive trials—from Saul’s persecution to family dysfunction to the consequences of his own moral failures—while maintaining deep relationship with God. David’s example is particularly valuable because it demonstrates how honest emotional expression can coexist with unwavering faith commitment.
David models the practice of bringing the full range of human emotion into prayer. He expresses fear, anger, confusion, sadness, and even despair, but he consistently moves from complaint toward trust, from problem focus toward God focus, from temporal concerns toward eternal perspectives. This movement is not always linear or complete within individual psalms, but it represents the overall trajectory of David’s spiritual life.
Meditation on David’s example might examine specific psalms that address situations similar to current struggles. Psalm 13 provides a model for dealing with apparent divine delay in responding to urgent needs. Psalm 51 demonstrates how to approach God after moral failure. Psalm 23 offers perspective on finding security in divine provision rather than favorable circumstances.
The key insight from David’s example is that spiritual maturity does not require the suppression of difficult emotions but their proper expression within the context of relationship with God. The believer who learns to pray like David discovers resources for honesty that do not lead to despair and trust that do not require the denial of genuine difficulty.
Paul: Strength Through Weakness
Paul’s apostolic career provides extensive examples of finding divine strength through human weakness, maintaining joy in the midst of persecution, and discovering meaning in suffering through service to others. Paul’s example is particularly valuable because it demonstrates how trials can be transformed from mere obstacles into actual resources for ministry and spiritual growth.
Paul consistently reframes his difficulties in terms of their contribution to larger purposes. His imprisonments become opportunities for evangelism among Roman guards. His physical afflictions become occasions for experiencing divine grace. His persecution becomes participation in Christ’s sufferings and therefore reason for rejoicing rather than complaint.
Perhaps most importantly, Paul demonstrates how to maintain hope during extended periods of difficulty by focusing attention on eternal rather than temporal realities. His confidence is not based on expectation that circumstances will necessarily improve but on assurance that present suffering serves eternal purposes that transcend immediate circumstances.
Meditation on Paul’s example might focus on passages like 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, where he explains how outer decay can coexist with inner renewal, or Philippians 4:11-13, where he describes learning contentment regardless of external conditions. The goal is not merely to admire Paul’s spiritual maturity but to understand the specific practices and perspectives that enabled such maturity so they can be cultivated in contemporary circumstances.
Gratitude as Spiritual Warfare
The practice of deliberate gratitude serves as one of the most powerful weapons in the believer’s arsenal for maintaining spiritual equilibrium during trials. This is not merely positive thinking or attempt to deny the reality of genuine difficulties, but recognition that gratitude fundamentally alters our relationship to circumstances by focusing attention on evidences of divine goodness that exist alongside temporal problems.
The apostle Paul’s counsel to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) is not pious sentiment but practical spiritual warfare. The practice of gratitude directly counters several tendencies that undermine spiritual health during trials: the focus on what is lacking rather than what is provided, the assumption that current difficulties outweigh all other considerations, and the gradual development of resentment toward God for allowing unwelcome circumstances.
The Daily Gratitude Inventory
The most basic form of this practice involves daily identification of specific reasons for gratitude, even during seasons of significant difficulty. This inventory should include both extraordinary blessings and ordinary provisions that are easily overlooked when attention is focused primarily on problems.
The gratitude inventory might include physical provisions (food, shelter, health), relational gifts (family, friends, community), spiritual resources (scripture, prayer, worship), and opportunities for meaning and service (work, ministry, creative expression). During difficult seasons, the inventory might need to focus on quite basic realities—the fact that we woke up this morning, that we have air to breathe, that someone cares about our welfare.
The key is to be specific rather than general in identifying reasons for gratitude. “I am grateful for my health” is less powerful than “I am grateful that my legs carried me up the stairs this morning” or “I am grateful that my eyes allow me to see the sunrise.” Specific gratitude trains attention to notice particular evidences of divine provision that might otherwise go unrecognized.
Gratitude in the Midst of Trial
The most challenging and most powerful form of gratitude practice involves finding reasons for thanksgiving within the trials themselves. This is not gratitude for suffering as such—we need not be grateful for cancer or divorce or unemployment—but gratitude for resources, relationships, and insights that become available through suffering and might not be accessible any other way.
The individual facing serious illness might express gratitude for the compassion of medical caregivers, for family relationships that are deepened by crisis, for the opportunity to experience divine grace in new ways, or for increased empathy with other sufferers. The person dealing with job loss might give thanks for the chance to reevaluate priorities, for the support of friends during difficulty, for the motivation to develop new skills, or for increased dependence on divine provision.
This practice requires careful balance to avoid false optimism that denies the reality of genuine difficulty. The goal is not to pretend that suffering is pleasant or to minimize its real costs, but to recognize that even within genuine hardship, evidences of divine grace and human goodness continue to exist and deserve acknowledgment.
Gratitude as Identity Formation
The consistent practice of gratitude gradually reshapes our fundamental orientation toward existence from entitlement to appreciation, from focus on deficiency to recognition of abundance, from resentment toward circumstances to contentment with divine provision. This reorientation supports the development of unassailable core identity by grounding our sense of well-being in recognition of gift rather than achievement of desired outcomes.
The believer who regularly practices gratitude develops what might be called “appreciative consciousness”—habitual awareness of the countless ways in which life exceeds what we have earned or deserve. This consciousness provides foundation for contentment that does not depend on having everything we want while maintaining engagement with responsibilities and opportunities for improvement.
Gratitude also serves identity formation by training attention to focus on our status as recipients of divine grace rather than on our performance as spiritual athletes. The more we recognize how much we have been given—including the very capacity for gratitude itself—the less our identity depends on what we achieve and the more it rests on what we have received.
Intercessory Prayer as Antidote to Self-Absorption
Perhaps the most effective antidote to the self-absorption that suffering naturally produces is the discipline of regular intercession for others. When trials consume our attention and energy, the natural tendency is to become increasingly focused on our own needs and circumstances. While appropriate self-care during difficult seasons is essential, exclusive self-focus typically amplifies rather than diminishes emotional distress and spiritual struggle.
Intercessory prayer serves multiple purposes in developing endurance. It provides psychological relief from intense focus on personal problems by directing attention toward others’ needs. It connects our individual struggles to the larger human condition, reducing the sense of isolation that suffering often produces. It maintains engagement with divine purposes that transcend personal circumstances, providing meaning and significance even when personal outcomes remain uncertain.
Systematic Intercession Practices
Effective intercessory prayer requires some degree of organization and consistency to avoid becoming merely sporadic or superficial. Many believers find it helpful to establish regular patterns for remembering different categories of people and needs throughout the week or month.
One approach involves designating specific days for different types of intercession: Mondays for family members, Tuesdays for friends, Wednesdays for church community, Thursdays for local and national leaders, Fridays for international concerns, Saturdays for specific ministry efforts, and Sundays for personal needs. This pattern ensures comprehensive coverage while preventing any category from being neglected.
Another approach focuses on specific individuals or families each day, spending time learning about their current circumstances and praying in detail for their particular needs. This might involve keeping a prayer journal with information about people’s ongoing struggles and regular updates about how prayers are being answered or circumstances are developing.
The key is to move beyond general requests for blessing toward specific, informed intercession that demonstrates genuine care for others’ welfare. Generic prayers for “everyone who is suffering” lack the personal engagement that makes intercession both meaningful to the pray-er and effective as spiritual discipline.
Intercession During Personal Trial
The practice of intercession proves particularly challenging but especially valuable during seasons of personal difficulty. When our own problems feel overwhelming, it requires conscious effort to maintain awareness of others’ needs and to invest emotional energy in their welfare rather than focusing exclusively on our own concerns.
Yet this is precisely when intercession provides the greatest benefit. The individual facing unemployment who prays specifically for others dealing with job loss discovers that his struggle is part of a larger human experience rather than an isolated personal tragedy. The person dealing with health problems who intercedes for others facing illness finds that her suffering connects her to a community of shared experience rather than separating her from normal human life.
Intercession during personal trial also provides opportunities to offer the comfort we ourselves need to receive. The believer who prays for others facing similar struggles often discovers that his prayers for them become prayers that God answers in his own circumstances as well. The mother who intercedes for other parents of struggling teenagers often finds that the wisdom and patience she requests for them becomes available in her own parenting challenges.
Intercession as Participation in Divine Purposes
The ultimate significance of intercessory prayer lies not in its psychological benefits for the pray-er but in its participation in God’s work of redemption and restoration in the world. When believers intercede for others, they join with Christ in his ongoing ministry of intercession before the Father (Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25) and with the Holy Spirit in his ministry of groaning for creation’s restoration (Romans 8:26-27).
This understanding transforms intercession from religious exercise into participation in the cosmic work of renewal that God is accomplishing throughout history. The believer who intercedes for healing joins God’s work of restoration. The individual who prays for justice participates in divine efforts to establish righteousness. The person who intercedes for reconciliation cooperates with the ministry of peace that characterizes God’s kingdom.
This participatory understanding of intercession provides profound meaning for prayer even when specific requests do not receive obvious answers. The value of intercessory prayer lies not only in obtaining desired outcomes but in aligning human hearts with divine purposes and enabling believers to cooperate consciously with God’s redemptive work in the world.
During personal trials, this understanding prevents intercession from becoming merely therapeutic technique and transforms it into genuine ministry that serves eternal purposes. The sufferer who intercedes for others discovers that his pain becomes a resource for understanding and addressing others’ pain, that his struggle contributes to the larger struggle against evil and suffering that characterizes the present age.
Integration of Daily Disciplines
The four disciplines outlined—morning and evening examinations, scripture meditation on suffering saints, gratitude practice, and intercessory prayer—work together to create what might be called a “scaffolding of spiritual formation” that supports the construction of the five pillars of endurance. Each discipline reinforces and strengthens the others while contributing its own unique elements to the overall structure of spiritual maturity.
The morning and evening examinations provide the regular rhythm of reflection and assessment that keeps spiritual growth conscious and intentional. Scripture meditation supplies the models and resources that inform wise responses to difficulty. Gratitude practice maintains the appreciation and contentment that support unassailable core identity. Intercessory prayer ensures that personal spiritual development serves larger purposes and maintains connection to the broader community of faith.
Together, these disciplines create daily patterns of attention and activity that gradually reshape character in directions that enable greater resilience during trials. They are not magic formulas that guarantee immunity from suffering or provide easy answers to complex problems, but they are reliable means by which believers can develop the kinds of attitudes, perspectives, and resources that authentic endurance requires.
The key to their effectiveness lies not in perfect performance but in consistent practice over extended periods of time. Like physical exercise, these spiritual disciplines produce benefits that are cumulative rather than immediate, requiring patience and persistence to achieve their intended results. But for believers willing to invest the necessary time and effort, they provide proven methods for building the kind of character that can weather life’s inevitable storms while emerging stronger rather than weaker from the experience.
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