Many times, God will work to bring one of His elect to faith through troubles or hardships that reveal one’s own inadequacy to face the circumstances with which they are confronted. In His time, God mercifully reveals to one whom He has foreknown since before the creation of the world that Jesus Christ is their only source of strength and hope. Their own strength and resources, which may have served them well in managing life before, will no longer be adequate to sustain them through their present troubles. As Jesus said: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I
am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).
It is an act of divine mercy for God to bring one of His elect to faith in Christ through adversity and need, revealing to them that the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient for their every need (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Philippians 4:11-13), because God does not do this for everyone. Many are left in their sins and find themselves to be among the wicked as Job described them in Job 21:7-16, and as Asaph described them in Psalm 73:1-9.
They are not afflicted like others, but everything seems to go their way in life, and therefore pride, arrogance, callousness, conceits, scoffing and malice characterize their lives. They find that they can get all they need and more by their own strength, and they either see no need of God in their lives, or they imagine that God must be pleased with them since they have been blessed with so many benefits in life.
Such thoughts and reasoning are a deception, and for God to allow these individuals to continue in this deception is one way in which He hardens those to whom He shows no mercy but leaves them in their sin. They seem to do well for themselves in this life, but ultimately and eternally their fate is a tragic one, and they will one day find themselves not among those who are blessed, but among those upon whom Jesus pronounces woes, as He tells them that they have already received their consolation in full (Luke 6:20-26).