Problems are part of every believer’s journey, but Pastor Benny Tate says they should never be mistaken for evidence that God has abandoned His people.
Preaching from the life of Joseph in Genesis 37, Tate reminded his congregation that Scripture is filled with men and women who endured hardship before seeing God’s promises fulfilled. While believers cannot control every circumstance they face, they can choose how they respond, trusting that God is using even painful seasons to accomplish His purposes.
“We can’t determine what happens to us, but we can determine what happens in us. We can determine our response. And I think many times somebody said, ‘Pastor Benny, is it easy to act like a Christian?’ Let me tell you something: it’s easier to act like a Christian than to react like a Christian. It’s our response of how we handle problems that many times makes the difference.”
Using Joseph’s journey from favored son to slave, prisoner and eventually Egypt’s second-highest ruler, Tate highlighted five lessons he believes every Christian should remember when facing difficult seasons.
1. Problems Provide Greater Opportunities
Joseph’s dreams appeared to die after his brothers sold him into slavery and he was later imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Yet those years of suffering became the very path God used to place him before Pharaoh.
After interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph was elevated to lead Egypt through a coming famine—something Tate noted never would have happened without the prison.
“He never would have became prime minister had he not been in the prison. He never would have been prime minister had he not went through many years of hardship. This is what I’ve learned many times. God wants to use your prison to be your pulpit. Many times, God wants to use the hurt of your life to be the passageway of your greatest blessing.”
Tate also pointed to the apostle Paul, observing that several New Testament books—including Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon—were written while Paul was imprisoned.
“Problems provide us our greatest opportunities,” he said.
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2. Problems Promote Spiritual Maturity
Joseph may have been Jacob’s favorite son, but Tate said God had to mature him before entrusting him with leadership over an entire nation.
The wilderness seasons between Joseph’s dream and its fulfillment were not wasted years but years of preparation.
“God will use problems in your life to build spiritual maturity in your life. The Bible is very clear… God uses problems to build spiritual maturity in our lives… We want to go from Egypt to the Promised Land, but it don’t work that way. God takes you from Egypt to the wilderness and then to the promised land. No, you don’t bypass the wilderness… God don’t take you from Egypt to the promised land. He takes you from Egypt to the wilderness because He’s building maturity in your life.”
Tate said that principle applies beyond Joseph’s story, noting David was anointed king long before he actually took the throne because God first developed his character in the wilderness.
He also challenged parents not to remove every obstacle from their children’s lives, saying God often uses hardship to teach lessons comfort never can.
3. Problems Produce Dependence on God
Rather than pushing believers away from the Lord, Tate said difficulties often teach them to rely on Him more deeply than ever before.
Recalling the classic hymn Learning to Lean, Tate reflected on how suffering continually reminds him where true strength is found.
“I had mastered it. I had mastered it, but I’m learning to lean on Jesus. I don’t know what you’re going through, but I’ve learned to lean on Jesus through the hard times, through the difficult times. I found Him blooming where heartaches abundantly rain. It’s good on the mountain, but they come and they go. But down in the valley, there’s always a rose.”
Tate encouraged believers not to overlook the testimonies and hymns born from painful seasons, noting that many of the Church’s greatest songs were written by people who learned to trust God through deep suffering.
4. Problems Prepare Us to Serve Others
Joseph’s dreams initially focused on others bowing before him. Years later, after enduring betrayal and imprisonment, Scripture describes him serving those around him while in prison.
For Tate, that change revealed one of God’s primary purposes in allowing trials.
“The Bible says, ‘And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them… and he served them.’ What does God want to do with our problems? He wants to take our problems, and He wants us to use what we’ve been through to turn around and help other people. He wants us to use what we’ve been through and turn around and help other people.”
He pointed to 2 Corinthians 1, explaining that God comforts His people so they can extend that same comfort to others walking through similar hardships.
5. Problems Put Us on the Path to Heaven
Tate concluded by reminding listeners that humanity’s greatest problem is not financial struggles, broken relationships or illness, but sin.
Sharing his own testimony, he described how conviction over his sinful lifestyle ultimately led him to place his faith in Jesus Christ.
“God dealt with my heart. God convicted my heart. God showed me that I was a sinner. God showed me that there was no hope. God showed me that I couldn’t save myself. God showed me that the only way I could go to heaven was through Jesus Christ. Thank God for a problem, because it was a problem that put me on the right path.”
Quoting Ephesians 2, Tate reminded the congregation that everyone was once “dead in trespasses and sin” before celebrating the hope found in the Gospel.
“We were dead in trespasses and sin… We had no hope. We were dead… Then we get to verse four, and it says, ‘But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us.’ I thank God for a problem, folks, because it was a problem that brought me to Jesus Christ.”
Throughout Joseph’s story, Tate encouraged believers to resist viewing hardship as the end of God’s plan. Instead, he urged Christians to remember that God often accomplishes His greatest work through the very seasons that seem the most painful.
Whether building maturity, teaching dependence, creating opportunities or drawing people to salvation, God remains faithful to use every trial for His glory and the good of His children.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
