Affliction is never accidental for the believer. Every trial, pain, and hardship is sovereignly appointed by God for His glory and our good. The world sees suffering as meaningless, or merely as an obstacle to their happiness. But Scripture teaches that suffering is a tool in the hands of our loving Father to purify our faith,
to humble our pride,
and to draw us nearer to Jesus.
God often uses affliction:
to bring His people to repentance,
to teach them humility,
to refine them in the furnace of affliction,
to draw them closer to Himself,
to cause them to live a more holy life,
to strengthen their faith,
and to conform them to Christ.
God's rod is a pencil to draw Christ's image upon us!
God's people never grow strong in grace without trials.
Troubles are the tools with which God polishes His jewels. The pruning knife is never out of His hand, and it is never used without wisdom or love.
Affliction is not the end of the story. One day, every tear will be wiped away, every pain will be no more, and we will see our trials as God's instruments that shaped us for eternity. Until that day, we endure with faith, knowing that God is working out His perfect plan.
[Charles H. Spurgeon]
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Job 23:10 ... But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Romans 8:18 ... For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 ... For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.❤
