Chapter 81—When Affliction Comes
When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled
himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
2 Chronicles 33:12
.
“In the world ye shall have tribulation” (
John 16:33
), says Christ; but
in Me ye shall have peace. The trials to which Christians are subjected in
sorrow, adversity, and reproach are the means appointed of God to separate
the chaff from the wheat. Our pride, selfishness, evil passions, and love of
worldly pleasure must all be overcome; therefore God sends us afflictions to
test and prove us, and show us that these evils exist in our characters. We
must overcome through His strength and grace, that we may be partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. “For our light affliction,” says Paul, “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”
(
2 Corinthians 4:17, 18
). Afflictions, crosses, temptations, adversity, and our
varied trials are God’s workmen to refine us, sanctify us, and fit us for the
heavenly garner.
Many of your afflictions have been visited upon you, in the wisdom of
God, to bring you closer to the throne of grace. He softens and subdues His
children by sorrows and trials. This world is God’s workshop, where He
fashions us for the courts of heaven. He uses the planing knife upon our
quivering hearts until the roughness and irregularities are removed and we
are fitted for our proper places in the heavenly building. Through tribulation
and distress the Christian becomes purified and strengthened, and develops a
character after the model that Christ has given.
Let the afflictions which pain us so grievously become instructive lessons,
teaching us to press forward toward the mark of the prize of our high calling
in Christ. Let us be encouraged by the thought that the Lord is soon to come.
Let this hope gladden our hearts.
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