Trials and tribulations are ever-present, an unfortunate price of admission for being born into a sinful and fallen world. But your suffering doesn’t have to define you. It doesn’t have to anchor you to a life of misery and pain. In Romans 12:12, Paul gives the early church a three-step strategy to soar through suffering:

12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12

1. Choose joy. Happiness may be determined by outside circumstances, but joy is a choice. When we allow outward circumstances (like suffering) to determine our attitude, we are unnecessarily ceding control when we do not need to. The first step to soaring through suffering is to take back control of your attitude and choose joy.

2. Cultivate the discipline of patience. This one’s difficult because we live in a fast-food, microwave, I-want-it-now society. One of the things you’ll discover about God is that he’s not in a hurry about anything. Some of the greatest lessons you can learn through suffering isn’t what’s happening to you so much as what God wants to do in you. But that means you’re going to walk through that valley longer than you want to, and that means you’ll need to cultivate the discipline of patience.

3. Never stop praying. Praying is your lifeline to the Father. Never lose that. When my children are hurting, even if I’ve spanked them and I’m the source of their pain, their first reaction is still to cling tightly to me, the one who just disciplined them. Even though we may not have all of our answers figured out, even though we may be angry at God for allowing us to walk through this suffering, don’t stop clinging to him through prayer. It’s the best way to soar through suffering.