Every one of us endures afflictions of some kind. While some are nuisances to endure like my sinuses this week, others are down right grueling; someone is facing cancer or they have become unemployed or someone’s spouse died. There are people who live with chronic pain. There are those who have a physical disability or struggle mentally, and will endure their struggles for the rest of their lives. We all would agree that life is hard.
God understands what we go through. Truly, He is the most gracious, heavenly Father who comes to us to help us. He comes to help you. His love has no bounds. He can help the multitude and the individual. His greatest attribute of His understanding is His Son Jesus.
Jesus, the Son of God, came to do what He did so you can survive the pitfalls of living in a sinful world and be rescued out of it. His resurrection ushered in the Holy Spirit to dwell within you when you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You are not on your own anymore to survive what life throws at you. God is with you and His presence becomes your strength and hope.
Look at what God said to Moses in Exodus 33:14, “I will personally go with you, and I will give you rest; everything will be fine for you.”
Look at what David sought after in Psalm 27:4-6a, “The one thing I ask of the Lord, the thing I seek most, is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in His Temple. For He will conceal me there when troubles come; He will hide me in His sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies (my afflictions) who surround me.”
You are not made to handle life on your own. You need God. I need God. Everyone needs God.
There is a man in the Bible that everyone knows about. His name is Job. He was a good guy, see Job 1:1. He understood who God was, yet, AFTER his many afflictions, you read about a change in him in Job 42:5-6.
“I had only heard about (God) before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
Who was Job in chapter 1? It says he was blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. Very nice godly traits to have, don’t you think? Then you read what he says in Job 42. What did God do through Job’s afflictions to get him to a deeper place in faith? Why did God have to do this? Wasn’t Job a true believer already?
While Job was walking upright in a godly manner, God had not become personal to him yet. God had to take him from seeing God “out there” to seeing God “with me“ or “for me“. God used worldly afflictions to lead Job to Himself. God went from being Job’s God “out there” to Job understanding, “God is my God.”
This revelation led Job to repentance. God got up into his business and broke him. While difficult to go through, Job’s sufferings had purpose; God’s purpose. And God hasn’t changed. He needs to get up into your business and break you. How? He allows trials and temptations and afflictions to lead you to Jesus. God uses whatever He deems necessary in this world to lead you to Himself. He does not want you to perish and be separated from Himself for eternity; see 2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16, Ezekiel 18:32, 33:11. He loves you with His whole heart.
I have learned this from God personally and I have shared this with others: God has to get you out of you.
We all are guilty of having love affairs with things in this world. Your career, family, hobbies, you name it, they become more important than God. And we know that God is a jealous God from Exodus 20:5, 34:14, Deut. 4:24, thus He has zero tolerance for anyone or anything being put in front of Him.
So, what afflictions are you facing today? There is eternal purpose behind it all. Take a deep breath knowing that God has your situation under control. You can trust Him to get you where you need to be. Seek God in the turmoil and He will lead you through it to a place of beauty where you will say, “I have seen God with my own eyes and I sit in my brokenness in repentance.”
Brokenness and repentance are the key essentials to abiding in Christ by faith. Yes, your flesh will hate it, but you will soon come to find that it is all worth it. Your heart is home in God. It is where you belong.
