As it is the duty of God's children to prepare for affliction before it comes,
so is it also their duty to improve affliction when it does come.
If we do not prepare for affliction, we shall be surprised by it;
and, if we do not improve it, we are likely to increase it.
He who would prepare for affliction, must beforehand:
resign all to God,
strengthen his graces,
store up divine promises,
and search out secret sins.
And he who would improve affliction when it does come, must labor to see:
sin more and more in its filthiness, so as to mortify it;
his heart in its deceitfulness, so as to watch over it;
the world in its emptiness, so as to be crucified to it;
grace in its amiableness, so as to prize it;
God in His holiness, so as to revere Him; and
Heaven in its desirableness, so as to long after it.
He who takes more care to avoid afflictions, than to be fitted for them; or
is more solicitous to be delivered from them, than to be bettered by them;
is likely to come soonest into them, and to live longest under them!
God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness.
[Thomas Sherman]
Hebrews 12:10-11 ... For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Psalm 119:71 ... It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
Psalm 119:75 ... I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. ❤
