The Fact of Affliction

The advantages of afflictions, when the Lord is pleased to employ them for the good of his people, are many and great. –John Newton

Christians have troubles. This is evident from the witness of scripture. It is evident from the witness of centuries of human history.

Satan points to the affliction in your life as evidence that you’re not really a Christian. Or he says that, if you are a Christian, that God has stopped loving you in his anger. But this is not true.

If you’re tempted to interpret trouble as a sign of God’s anger, rejection, or absence, look to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Our faith begins and ends with Jesus Christ, who suffered pain, humiliation, abandonment, and death.

“Think constantly of him enduring all that sinful men could say against him and you will not lose your purpose or your courage.” J.B. Phillips, Hebrews 12:3

If you’re tempted to doubt that God is your father because of your troubles…

…you have perhaps lost sight of that piece of advice which reminds you of our sonship in God:

'My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him; for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives'.

Bear what you have to bear as "chastening" - as God's dealing with you as sons. No true son ever grows up uncorrected by his father. For if you had no experience of the correction which all sons have to bear you might well doubt the legitimacy of your sonship. After all, when we were children we had fathers who corrected us, and we respected them for it. Can we not much more readily submit to a heavenly Father's discipline, and learn how to live?

For our fathers used to correct us according to their own ideas during the brief days of childhood. But God corrects us all our days for our own benefit, to teach us his holiness. Now obviously no "chastening" seems pleasant at the time: it is in fact most unpleasant. Yet when it is all over we can see that is has quietly produced the fruit of real goodness in the characters of those who have accepted it in the right spirit. So take a fresh grip on life and brace your trembling limbs. Don't wander away from the path but forge steadily onward. On the right path the limping foot recovers strength and does not collapse. Hebrews 12:4-13, J.B. Phillips

This passage has much to say about the suffering of God’s people.

A proper view of suffering will remind us that God is our father, because good fathers correct and rebuke their sons and daughters when it is needed. Many years ago, my second son was grounded. I don’t remember why, on this occasion. With him, it wasn't uncommon. One of his friends wanted him to play and found out he was grounded again. "Why is your so psycho?" he asked. My son told him, “Well, think about it. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want me to turn out... like you.”

We shouldn’t despise our troubles or allow them to discourage us. That’s not to say that we should enjoy troubles. But like Christ, who despised the shame of his death on the cross, we should endure suffering for the joy that is set before us—God is making us into the sort of people who are fit to live with him. He is remaking us into the very image of his son, Jesus, using everything, good and bad, that comes our way to accomplish this great purpose [Romans 8:28-29]. Look ahead to the good thing God is doing in you. Have faith in his promise to make you like his son.

In our troubles, God is sometimes correcting us. (Sometimes, a much greater purpose is being served; more of this later.) As he corrects us, God proves that he loves us and accepts us as his own sons and daughters. No true son ever grows up uncorrected by his father. Satan will say exactly the opposite, but he is a liar and the father of lies, speaking lies as his native language.

It’s the absence of correction that ought to cause you to doubt the legitimacy of your sonship. The wicked, as Asaph writes in Psalm 73, don’t have troubles. They prosper. Their faces are fat. They are always at ease, always increasing in riches. “On the other hand,” he complains, “I’m righteous but I’m continually being corrected. Every morning, I wake up to fresh criticism.” This all seemed pretty unfair until he started thinking about the end of the story—the wicked are happy and prosperous now, but face destruction. The righteous are being guided by the counsel of a loving father who will receive them into his glorious home forever.

When we were children, our fathers corrected us and we respected them for it. Even good fathers are far from perfect, but they do their best to help their children grow up to be good men and women. Often, they did some pretty unpleasant things because they wanted us to have a more pleasant future.

Our heavenly father is just like that, at work in all things, good and bad, for our own improvement.

Our troubles discourage us and make us feel rejected by God when, in fact, they are the evidence of our acceptance by him and of his love for us.

So far, this can sound pretty glib. There is suffering in the world too bitter to be justified by any benefit in this life or any other. There is no human perspective in which the suffering seems acceptable or less than pure evil. At such times, the best you can do is to insist that “Truly, God is good,” maintaining a “deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”

With such confidence, we can give into God’s care “sad hearts, difficult circumstances, deep loss, great disappointment,” trusting to find in the God who is a father to the fatherless “our confidence, our hope, our friendship.” [Alistair Begg, a Scottish pastor who somehow ended up in Cleveland, Ohio]

This is the confidence expressed by Rich Mullens in the song, “Bound to Come Some Trouble.”

There's bound to come some trouble to your life
But that ain't nothing to be afraid of
There's bound to come some trouble to your life
But that ain't no reason to fear
I know there's bound to come some trouble to your life
But reach out to Jesus hold on tight
He's been there before and He knows what it's like
You'll find He's there

There's bound to come some tears up in your eyes
That ain't nothing to be ashamed of
I know there's bound to come some tears up in your eyes
That ain't no reason to fear
I know there's bound to come some tears up in your eyes
Reach out to Jesus hold on tight
He's been there before and He knows what it's like
You'll find He's there

Now people say maybe things will get better
People say maybe it won't be long
And people say maybe you'll wake up tomorrow
And it'll all be gone
Well I only know that maybes just ain't enough
When you need something to hold on
There's only one thing that's clear:

I know there's bound to come some trouble to your life
But that ain't nothing to be afraid of
I know there's bound to come some tears up in your eyes
That ain't no reason to fear
I know there's bound to come some trouble to your life
Reach out to Jesus hold on tight
He's been there before and He knows what it's like
You'll find He's there