Adversities & Afflictions

Arthur W. Pink on adversities and afflictions:

"For a Christian to defy adversities is to despise 'chastisement.' Instead of hardening himself to endure stoically, there should be a melting of the heart."

"Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us."

Compromise

Rev. G. Campbell Morgan:

"There is a toleration which is treachery. There is a peace which issues in paralysis. There are hours when the Church must say NO to those who should ask communion with her, in the doing of her work, upon the basis of compromise. Such standing aloof may produce ostracism and persecution; but it will maintain power and influence ... The reason why men do not look to the Church today is that she has destroyed her own influence by compromise."

Doing Good

1 Peter 3:17 (NKJV) says, "For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil."

Joseph is a perfect example of this.

Joseph fled from the adulterous temptations offered to him by Potiphar's wife. In Genesis 39:9 (NKJV), Joseph said to her, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

Given Joseph's courageous and principled stand against sin, one would think that he would be rewarded and blessed abundantly for it.

Instead, he was sent to prison.

Joseph did the right thing.

Joseph did good.

And God let him suffer for it.

God's thoughts and God's ways are not the same as ours, according to Isaiah 55:8-9, and the same holds true for God's will and God's logic. They are all on a higher level and a higher plane than our own. We assume that our good actions always will be amply blessed by God, at least according to our murky, cloudy, and human-logic-based understanding of divine blessing.

Perhaps you have done good.

And perhaps you are now suffering for it.

Please know that God has not forsaken you. He has not forgotten you. He has not dropped the ball. In His sovereign will, and as part of His sovereign plan, He is allowing you to endure precisely what He has placed in your life.

In the case of Joseph, it all worked out perfectly in the end, as God used what others meant for evil instead for good in the life of Joseph (Genesis 50:20).

God will do the same in your life, too, even if you presently are suffering for doing good.

Tending Sheep

After Moses killed an Egyptian, he fled to Midian. Moses spent 40 years living in the wilderness and tending sheep for his father-in-law.

Only after spending 40 years in the wilderness, and tending sheep in the scorching desert, was Moses deemed ready by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land.

Does God seem to have you in the desert these days? Perhaps your time in the wilderness has gone on longer than you ever could imagine. Perhaps you feel as if it will never end.

Know that God, as part of His sovereign will and plan, intentionally allows us to go through periods in the wilderness. Sometimes very long periods. God frequently allows this in preparation for a new responsibility, just as He did with Moses.

If you seem to be in the desert right now, tending sheep in the wilderness, then please take heart and know that God is allowing it as part of His divine plan. He may have a huge new undertaking for you right around the corner, and He's preparing you for it in the wilderness, just as He did with Moses.

Wrath

Proverbs 15:1 (NKJV) -

"A soft answer turns away wrath ...."

Sand

The amount of time that you will spend on this earth, as compared to all of eternity, is like a single speck of sand, on a single beach, as compared to all of the sand, on all of the beaches, on all of the earth.

The Snail

Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

"By perseverance the snail reached the ark."