“It is good for me that I have been
afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.” Psalm 119:71 This
probably isn't anyone's favorite verse, but when you think about it,
this is a verse we could use on our hearts all day long. How often do
we feel afflicted during the day, by our bosses or coworkers or by
inconsiderate strangers, or even by our own families? Granted our
afflictions aren't always as horrible as they feel at the time, but
they're afflictions to us all the same. There's a phrase I hear a lot
from Christians, “The enemies attacking me.” I can't help but
feel like this phrase is backwards to the perspective we should have
to our afflictions and almost giving the enemy more power than he
really has. Yes, the enemy attacks us, but I can't forget abut the
first chapter of Job, that Satan had to ask God for permission to
afflict Job. God loves us and I'm convinced only allows affliction in
our lives when it's for good. How much more productive do you think
we could be, if when something bad happens to us, instead of seeing
it as the enemy attacking, we look at it as God refining us?
Psalm 66:10-12 says, “For You, O
God, have proved us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You
brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have
caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through
water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.” When I first
breezed over these verses, I thought, 'That's not right to blame
God,' but as I read them again it made sense. Everything that's
happened to us, whether we perceive it to be good or bad, was from
God, with a purpose: to bring us closer to Him. How quickly might we
move past our trials if we accredited them to His working in us,
drawing us nearer in love. It won't be comfortable, painless, or
easy, and God doesn't expect us to bury our emotions when we're
hurting, He says, there is a time for mourning, but we don't need to
be joyful to hold to the knowledge that it's all for good, we just
need to cling to the truth that He loves us. Romans 8:38-39 “For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.” The enemy has no power over us anymore, only the
power God's given him to draw us nearer to Him. Our afflictions
though painful are the cutting and polishing of precious stones, the
refining of silver or gold, the long suffering of a grain of sand
being transformed into a pearl in a clam.
