Afflictions are our servants

Afflictions are our servants

I. Reasons for the afflictions

Whatever is the reason that you suffer affliction, you need to know that is never bad for you, if God’s allowed it in your life. God never judge you, just to judge. He doesn’t have this kind of attitude like „You did something bad, so you deserve this punishment „ when He judges us. No! If this would be the case, He would never died for us. He doesn’t punish us just because we deserved it, but He punishes us with that purpose that it’ll eventually make us better.

He sees that there are impurities that keep us away from His precious face, so He uses punishment to deliver us, from those things that stand between us and His manifested presence.
He uses afflictions to make us better. There is a purpose in His judgement and also in His dealings with us.
„Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” (Eccl. 7:3) Affliction is our servant to make us better, make us more like Jesus. Also even Jesus “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;” (Hebr. 5:8), but never forget “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (Eccl. 7:8)
Suffering worketh for your good. „And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)

A. God will cause us to prosper even when we are in afflictions.

1. Gen. 41:52 - „And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

B. God hears our cry in our afflictions, and He will deliver us

1. Ex. 3:7 - “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;”
2. Ex. 3:17 - “And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.”

C. We need to eat the bread of affliction, to remind us to where we coming from, and to keep us humble

1. Deut. 16:3 - “Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.”

D. It makes your heart better

1. Eccl. 7:3 - “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.”

E. It makes you worthy for the call

1. Matt. 5:4 - “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

Comforted means: to call near, invite, invoke

F. You’ll have great reward in heaven

1. Matt. 5:10-12 - “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

G. 1. Our bonds that bind us will be burned in our afflictions

a. Dan. 3:20-27

“And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.”

2. Also other people will glorify Jesus, because they’ll see Jesus deliverance in our affliction

a. Dan. 3:24-30

“Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.”

H. We learn obedience through sufferings

1. Hebr. 5:8 - “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;”

I. He chooses us in afflictions

1. Is. 48:10 - “…I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”

J. Our sufferings are for others

1. Col. 1:24 - “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:”

II. Suffering is good

God uses wrath to remove wickedness so that righteousness can shine. God does not desire to punish people for sin. He allows the natural consequences to disobedience to occur so that they will repent and be redeemed from the penalty of sin. Chastening caused Israel to cry out (Book of Judges), and He sent a deliverer. In this way, wrath is a form of pressure designed to direct our path toward God.

A. Hebr. 2:10 says, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings.”

B. Hebr. 12:4-13

“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.”

Suffering causes us to let go of our carnality and thereby make more room for the presence of God. Rom. 8:18 – “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Everything that is not of Him will be subject to wrath of God.

Suffering For The Glory

I enjoy reading through the life of David because so much of his life is relatable to situations of our own. He is a great example of a man with a true heart after God and an understanding of the true mercies and grace of God.
In 2 Samuel 5 we see two similar situations in David’s early life as king of his conflict with the Philistines. Both times the Philistines came up against David and both times he faithfully went before God to ask not only for a word of assurance of victory, but first of all, permission to face off with the enemy. We should be choosing our battles with the knowledge that the victory is already in God’s hands. WE shouldn’t be going after something if it is not in God’s timing or will.
The first situation was simple; God granted favor and David saw an easy victory. When our walk is young in the Lord, He surely tries to encourage us with small victories. But what I really want to talk about is the second battle. Just as before, David went before God, which is a great example of recognizing our place. Easy victories can boost our confidence so that we think we can handle situations without having to go before God because we’ve faces similar situations before, but our walk with Jesus is not an easily learned formula, it is a growing relationship, built precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. David was right in his decision to go before God because if he didn’t he would have missed the specific instructions to ensure the victory. God told David to go to down to the Mulberry trees, wait, and watch for God to move. The “mulberry tree” in the Hebrew translates to the weeping tree. God was sending David to a place of weeping, sorrow. This is where we should really take heed. As I have learned, our afflictions can be boiled down to three causes: Satan, ourselves, and God. If you are giving yourself to Jesus everyday, keeping your heart right, then Satan can be easily bound (resist the devil and he shall flee). We are also subject to the repercussions of our own actions, reaping what we sow. God is always merciful, but sometimes whatever you started just has to cycle out, or go full circle. It’s the third cause that we tend to forget or deny and that is the hand of God. More than not we blame Satan, in a sense glorifying him, giving him a lot of honor where it is not due. Mark 4:17 says: affliction and persecution arises for the word’s sake. It’s our affliction that works in us the glory of God (2 Cor. 4:17). He is purging the things from us that are not of Him to make more room for His presence in us. Even if Satan’s hand is in it, who’s to say that he isn’t acting under the permission and will of God, as in Job’s situation. We have to believe that as His children, He has our best interests at heart, not for our own glory, but for His glory. The intention of bringing David to a place of sorrow was merely God’s chosen path to a predestined victory.
Once in that place, David was instructed to just wait and watch. It’s so easy to get discouraged in the place where we’re at because not only is our soulish man being pressed, but the timing is rarely what we think it should be. Remember the words of 1 Cor.: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” The perspective of our situation may be different than that of God’s but He knows us better than we know ourselves. No matter what our view is, God would never ask anything of us that we were incapable of, maybe not of our own accord, but through Him: Luke 18:27 - But he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. The place of sorrow is bearable because God wants us to see it through. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” It’s not the affliction that tries to outdo us, it’s the temptation to veer from the affliction. The priests were meant to bear the burden of the ark. We aren’t to be loosed of the afflictions, but made strong enough to bear them and eventually overcome them. God is not looking for strategists, always planning and scheming their way out, He’s looking for overcomers, who will see it through to the end, even if it is a place of sorrow.
What was David to do while he waited? Watch! He was watching for the move of God, through the mulberry trees, aka; his sorrowful situation. A sure sign of our victory being close at hand is the movement of God in the midst of our situation. But the only way that is possible is if our eyes are toward Him (Colossians 3:2 - Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.). David’s eye s had to be kept up, off of his enemy and surroundings. This can be hard when things seem to be closing in. Can we keep our mind set toward the things of God’s heart rather than the onslaught of the things of this world? I don’t care what great revelation of the word you may have, or how many years you have walked with Jesus, when it comes down to it, can you still hold to the simple truth of obedience in your situation. God moves in a wind through the treetops, an easy thing to miss if your eyes stray for but a moment. Our human nature is to keep a watch on the enemy, but David’s place of sorrow was not the enemy’s doing at all, it was all God’s plan.
The most encouraging part of this word is the fact of seeing God move. Not only do you know that it is a sign of near victory, but because you’re waiting on God to move first, it means that He is going before you. What greater shield against the enemy than the almighty power and glory of our God! All David had to do was follow that movement to victory. Every time I read this story in the Bible, it’s encouraging because it is such a great example of God’s intentions behind our suffering and afflictions. We could easily live “the good life” and God would love us regardless, but we truly have the heart of God, then we know that His heart is that all would share in all that He has. The suffering and victories are not for ourselves, but out of our love for God and for the sake of those around us.