No story is ever complete without one of the major elements of writing called conflict. It is a necessary component of any good fiction book. The issues that a writer uses to produce conflict often take place between two characters, a life event or something that the character(s) deals with inside themselves. The story will need many twists and turns, a few surprises as well as a couple of good and bad choices of some of the characters to keep the plot developing. Life is much the same way. When God is interested in developing or changing something in our life story, he allows conflicts from many different sources to envelop us. He uses these different situations to draw us to him. Psalm 107:13 states, “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.” Without a struggle we would possibly never experience the different facets of God personally. When a writer gives a character a role that produces no change, we call them a flat character, but when a writer takes a character and brings them through triumphs and sorrows, the end result is always a dynamic character, someone who has changed and grown into something worth recognizing. As children of the most high God we must recognize the benefits that conflict can have in our lives if we allow God to use these momentary struggles to produce in us a mature, changed dynamic individual ready for his service.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not what is seen [the conflict at hand], but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).