Blessed Afflictions
How God Works in All Our Trials for Our Growth and Good
South Stevens County Times
September 2023
By Pastor Tim White
“Any allergies?” asked the nurse as she updated my chart before the doctor came in. My answer was, “Yes, I am allergic to pain.” The nurse got a chuckle out of that, and I internally thanked God that I do not have allergies or any serious health issues at this time in my life.
As we all know, pain is an unfortunate part of life. Pain is the trumpet that announces to the rest of your body and mind that something is wrong, and you’d better find out what’s going on before it gets any worse. In that light, pain is the first step toward healing and health. So yes, pain is a blessing.
Externally, we face the “pain” of various trials, sorrow, loss, and times of need – in a word, “Affliction.” Many of our friends and neighbors are in the middle of affliction through losing their homes and belongings in the recent fires. What can this kind of pain in life reveal to our hearts and minds? Could afflictions be the first step toward something extraordinary and life-changing?
The writer of Psalm 119 uses the word affliction several times. Most specifically, in verse 71, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees” (NIV84). Our initial response to God might be: “Why can’t I just ‘learn Your decrees’ in Sunday School or from the pastor’s sermons instead of this painful road?”
The answer to that question is the difference between head and experiential knowledge. Reading the manual to fly a Cessna 180 is helpful, but you have not learned to fly it until you successfully sit in the cockpit and fly it multiple times. Knowing God’s truths through teaching is good, but you do not truly “learn” them until you have had to hold onto them for an extended period when the rest of your world is falling apart.
Afflictions are a blessing because they reveal our limitations, the fragility of life, and that we do not have complete control over our lives – we never really do. Afflictions announce that we need someone greater to help us through our current crisis. For many people, the presence of distress or severe trials in their lives led them to faith in Jesus. Maybe that is part of your faith journey. So, what does this look like?
In Romans 4, Abraham is called the “father of all who believe.” In Genesis 15:6, God promised to give Abraham a son and, through that son, build a nation. However, his wife, Sarah, was barren, and they were well beyond childbearing years. But still, despite the impossibility, Abraham believed God would fulfill His promise.
In verses 19-21, we read, “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead…and Sarah’s womb was also dead.” Abraham looked his obstacle in the face and “did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God…” – and now get this – “…but was strengthened in his faith…being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
When the affliction of barrenness that had been a central part of their long marriage “spoke up,” saying God could not keep His promise this time, Abraham’s faith became stronger! His trial was the means by which he grew to an experiential understanding of trust, not just in God’s promises but in God Himself. His affliction was the first step toward an extraordinary relationship with God.
No matter your affliction, God can more than lead you through it if you are “fully persuaded that God has the power to do what He has promised” for all those who will come to Him in repentance, faith, and confidence. What makes faith powerful is not within the person but in the object of that faith – God the Father of all, and Jesus Christ His Son!
Only God knows what kind of extraordinary encounter awaits. “The one who calls you is faithful, and He (God) will do it” (1Th 5:24).