Uses of Affliction 08

Uses of Affliction 08

7.  The exercise of grace in the children of God

Grace must apply to something.  Grace is given for a purpose.  We could write long on the purpose of grace but others are better suited to undertake such a profound work.  For us, here, grace is given that we may be free but freedon is not free.

The freedom God calls us to cost Him much and once He calls us into it, it will cost us all.  All our self-love, all our selfish fears, all our selfish demands, all our self-focused worship, all our self-directed service.  What the application and exercize of grace costs us is our sin.  It relentlessly digs and digs to remove the root of our sin.  This is a work of grace, a free gift and yet a costly one.


Are we willing to see and accept that afflcitions - all afflictions are indeed intended to exercize grace in our lives?  Are we willing to accept that no matter how dark and difficult the affliction it is God is working for our good and His glory?

There is no requirement for God to work thusly in our lives except for His character, His love for us.  So we must pray to understand that even afflictions are gracious and wonderful acts of God in our lives.

No, they are not pleasant but they are necessary for our sanctification.

I read a great deal in the Puritains and they all speak of sharing in the suffering of Christ (as do the Epistles).  Why are we so very resistant to this?  Where have we gotten the idea that being His menas a trouble free life when He promised us tribulations.  And where do we ever get the idea that a trouble free life means that we must be doing something pleasing to Him when a trouble free life more often indicated an apathetic existance.

Afflcitons drive us to Him and when we are His afflictions serve to keep us close.  Rare is the believer who stays near (or even is near) to Him when in comfort or at ease.  Comfort and ease have been mistaken as relating to our blessedness when indeed they are traps of apathy and faithlessness.

Paul tells us that God is a God of comfort in all our afflcitions.  One might assume (cautiously) that being afflicted is the norm for the believer.  And indeed, if we are truly aliens and strangers here afflictions are the norm.  This is not home - this life is not the point - and God'ss gracious afflcitions keep us mindful of that.

Let us keep in mind the "uses" of afflciton and embrace them with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Uses of Afflictions
The trial of one's state, whether one is in the state of grace of not.
Excitation to duty, weaning one from this world, and prompting him to look after the happiness of the other world.
Conviction of sin.
Correction and punishment for sin.
Preventing sin.
Discovery of latent corruption whether in saints of sinners.
The exercize of grace in the chidren of God