“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” (Psalms 34:19)
God did a marvelous thing when He created a man. He made him a little lower than the angels, but crowned him with glory and honor. Then, He made him to have dominion over the works of His hand. Why did He do that? Well, if He had made you an angel, what would you become? You would be an angel and for the rest of your life, you would be an angel. You would never have to overcome anything. All you could do would be to do the will of God, the thing that God wants you to do. Therefore, there would be no growth in you and you would never become a son of God.
When did God ever say to an angel, “Come and sit at the right hand of God?” But He said it to you, little wretched man, full of sin, filthiness, and darkness! That is the one He wants! God wants the one, who can look back and say, “Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus!”
And so, because of this great promise, He made you low down and gave you the ability to grow. But He didn’t just say, “Well, you are like a plant. If I give you good fertilizer you will grow big. If I don’t water you, you will probably wilt.” He didn’t say that. He said, “Man, I am putting all the fertilizer into your grasp and I am putting all the glory before you. I am going to give you everything you want, but you have to take it. You are going to get as much of God as you take!” He said in Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” It is men and women of force that take the kingdom of God. It means that you see what you want and you say, “This is what I want!” God said if you want it, you will get it. You will suffer for it, but you will get it. Do you wonder where it is in the Scriptures? Look in Matthew 20:22-23, “But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with…” This is exactly what He said when the mother of John and James came to Him asking if they could sit one at His right hand and the other at His left. He replied to them that it was not for Him to give, but that they were going to get the cup of suffering that He suffered. You see, without suffering there is no progress. We have to go through suffering. You can easily recognize the men and women who go through suffering, because those are the ones who shine. Some suffer in their circumstances, some suffer in their bodies, and some suffer mentally or emotionally. But the more suffering, the more you shine.
So, we thank God for afflictions for God knows what kind of afflictions we can take and God knows what we need in order to become His sons. Sometimes it is terrible when we consider some of the things that happen to us. One time I was driving down the street and suddenly the vehicle began to spin like it was on ice. I wondered to myself, “What is going on here?” I have been driving for over fifty years and this has never happened before. I did all the maneuvering I could to get the vehicle back straight. It was going sideways for a moment, then it was going backwards for another moment, and then it was spinning around in the road. Finally, I tried to lock the steering wheel to keep it in the road, because it was going off to the side. The wheel locked and the car slid right into the wall. If you looked at the angle at which it hit the wall and looked at everything else around, you would say, “Well, God must have really been there.” For the only problem we had was the air bags bursting and burning my hand. The wall stopped us and thus it became a blessing. Praise be to God!
I asked God, “God, why? Why would you allow a thing like this to happen?” He said to me, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” (Psalms 34:19) We came out scot-free and had to thank God. Everybody said that this was not a way to crash at 60 miles an hour.
I wouldn’t want to face God knowing He put a suffering before me that I backed down from. For, oh God, I know that beyond that suffering there is a glory. And if I back down, I lose the glory. May the Lord give you a desire in the sufferings He places you in to not only endure to the end, but to rejoice in it for at the end you will receive His glory.
Sonlight Devotional 