Thank God for Affliction

Romans 8:28 We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His decree.



Romans 8:32 Is it possible that He who did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for the sake of us all will not grant us all things besides?



God is using all things for good, including our frailties, idiosyncracies and eccentricities. He is still in control! All things work for good to those who love God.



God regularly and consistently takes all that He allows to happen to Christians, even what seems to them to be the worst things, and turns those events ultimately into blessings. That is Divine Providence at work.



No matter what your situation - happy, prosperous and easy; or sad, painful, and difficult - through it all, God works to do what is ultimately best and most blessed for you.



In His providence, the Lord uses 'all things', circumstances that are evil and harmful as well as those that are good and helpful, to mold you into the kind of person He wants you to be. When you struggle with life, just remember what God promised the apostle Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor.12:9). That pledge is for you as well.



Psalm 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.



Psalm 73:28 But for me, to be near God is my good. (Other translation: "It is good for me to grow near to the Lord."



Sin is always poisonous and error is always injurious. . . and we experience these in moments of relaxation...enjoying the soft hours of ease, times of learning and seasons of calm, putting down our guards and unknowingly letting the enemy in our lives. "Much that seems good is only good in the seeming."



Affliction can be described as pain, discomfort, problems, tests. . . How has it been good?



1. too much "good times" could destroy us

Two things can harm you:

- to take success into your head

- to take failures into your heart



Proverbs 27:21 As the crucible tests silver and the furnace gold, so a man is tested by the
praise he receives.


The purity of silver and gold is tested by putting them in the fire. . . so the purity of human
hearts is tested by giving them a little fame.


2 Corinthians 12:7-9 But I refrain, lest anyone think more of me than what he sees in me or
hears from my lips. As to the extraordinary revelations, in order that I might not become
conceited, I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to beat me and keep me from
getting proud. Three times I begged the Lord that this might leave me. He said to me, "My
grace is enough for you, for in weakness power reaches perfection." And so I willingly boast
of my weakness instead, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.



2. Affliction is good as a cure for evils existent within our nature . . . to root out all the remaining
bitter roots implanted in our hearts.


Like the water bottle with sediments sinking at the bottom . . . shake it vigorously and the
sediments will appear.


Psalm 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept thy word.


Romans 5:3-4 But not only that - we even boast of our afflictions! We know that affliction
makes for endurance, and endurance for tested virtue, and tested virtue for hope.


Affliction is also useful to God's people as an actual producer of good things in them.
Perseverance produces strong character.


Affliction is a wonderful AWAKENER. God whispers to us in our quiet moments with Him
but shouts to us in our pain and afflictions. How have you reacted to the pains and afflictions
in your life?


Your life may be the only BIBLE some people will ever read. Live it well by bringing light to
others in the midst of darkness.