Let us not resent the times of trouble when they come, but to know that God in His love is using them to help us become more like Him and knows the best means. He gets our attention when we are hurting and wants our dependence to be on Him, rather than searching for ways to get out from under our situations right now! Instead, it is to be a listening time to surrender to the Lord and learn the benefit of the struggles we are experiencing. He has so much to teach us, and it helps if we are willing students who yield to Him.
The enemy is sure to tell us that God is against us or has forgotten us, and makes us question why we are holding on to Him. But rather than complain, we need to listen to the Lord and trust Him, even if we don’t fully understand the reasons at the time. I was reading what Thomas Brooks had to say about the benefits to be gained from our afflictions including: clear sight of our sins, softening of our hearts, removal of worldly influence, less pride and greater humility, growth in holiness, God revealed to us, thoughts fixed on eternity, and equipping us to help others who have troubles. That is a lot of pluses, and hopefully we are led to trust God’s power and to know it is in His love that we go through afflictions. He is not out to destroy us, but to free us. We may not love what we have to go through, but let us love what results from His refining in our lives.
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