In his book When Life Is Hard, pastor James MacDonald defines a trial as a painful circumstance allowed by God to change one's conduct and character. MacDonald uses the painful experience of bouncing a check to illustrate what he means. He writes:

It's not a great day when [you learn one of your checks has bounced]. You didn't have the money to cover the purchase to begin with and when the bank sends the check back, it has a fine attached! Good luck collecting on that. It's a circular problem, since one notice just follows another.

First of all, it's embarrassing because you didn't have the resources you thought you did. It's frustrating because you tack on those extra NSF (none sufficient funds) charges. It's difficult because you've got to work it out with the bank and work it out with the merchant. The whole thing is a huge hassle. A trial is like a bounced check. You feel stuck with a problem that you don't have the resources to solve. The temptation is to rant to God: "Do you see me over here, God? Do you see that I don't have what it takes to get through this? Are you paying attention? I'm about to bounce a lot of checks here. I don't have the resources. I don't have it emotionally. You're rattling my faith, God. Don't leave me in this mess." …

Those expressions of desperation you feel so awful about are in fact the exact truth that God has been trying to bring to your attention. You flat out don't have the resources. He wants you to come to the place where you get before him in a deeper way and tell him what he's known to be true all along: you are in over your head.