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It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees.
Psalm 119.71
If your law had not been my delight
I would have perished in my affliction.
Psalm 119.92
The writer of this psalm is brutally honest and humble. His walk through
suffering led him to discover what he did not know about God's ways.
There was immense value in the middle of his misery. His affliction
turned his mind toward learning God's word. Ironically then, in verse
92, it was the very things he learned that kept him from giving up when
the pain seemed unbearable.
Affliction was not part of God's original plan for the human race. He
had an eternal Garden of Eden in the works, which He will return us to
again in heaven; but life was spoiled by our own sin. In the meantime,
God is about making the best come out of a bad situation.
There is a treasure in our trials -- whether those trials be physical,
mental, or emotional (and whether they were our fault or not). That
treasure is a connection with God that sustains us through the
afflictions life always brings. God loves us so much that in the middle
of suffering He has provided the medicine we didn't even know we needed
-- His own thought and words, which bring incomparable joy.
Keep striving,
Mike
eDevotions written by Mike Sares. © 2005. |
