Uses of Affliction 09 032214

Uses of Afflictoin 09

FINI

"Oh how unskillfull and unwise am I to manage a suffering condition, to discern God's ends, to find out what God would have me to do, to moderate the vileness of my own passions, to apply the counsels and comforts of the Word for their proper ends and use."
Thomas Case, A Treatise on Afflcitions

God never allows affliction into the lives of His people for no good purpose.  As we have briefly seen there are uses for aflictions and they are indeed mercies.

However as Thomas Case wrote (above) we are unskillful and unwise in managing a "suffering condition."  But perhaps this is the greatest usage of afflictions, to provide us with the opportunity to gain the skill and wisdom we lack.

The Word and the Spirit are suffcient for us to begin (and continue) to develop the requisite skills and wisdom to make blessings our of buffetings.  If we will ony make use of these graces we will find that no matter how dark and difficult the affliction we can and will learn to bear up under it.  But we must make use of God's providence!

Sin, of course, is at the root of all affliction.  The corruption of the whole creation is both the catalyst and continuance of all we suffer.  Perhaps we fail to understand this or resist accepting this.  Were the whole of creation not so corrupted, well, we'd still be in the garden wouldn't we?  But we are not and so we MUST learn, we must seek the skill and wisdom we need.

It is an oft repeated, much misused and wonderful admonishment to us to, "Trust in the Lord with all your might and lean not on your own understanding.  In ALL your ways acknoledge Him and He will make your paths straight."  Note it is straight paths we are promised not smooth and easy ones.  Why, oh why will we not yield to His will in all conditions and circumstances and trust His love and power?

We love our ease and comforts too much and have been infected with a view of our faith that is diluted with falsehood and evil.  We are PROMISED tribulation, persecution, hatred, etc. in this world.  Why do we fight against what the Lord has made clear?

We are promised His presence and His provision to live for Him in this world but it is prayer to change our hearts not prayer to change our world that is needed.  Oh we can pray for an change of condition and circumstance but I think that if our focus is on that we have missed the whole point and our afflcitions do not accomplish what He intendes.

We sing;
Have Thy own way Lord.
Have Thy own way.
Hold or my being
absolute sway.

But do we simply mouth the words instead of singing the prayer?

We sing;
Create in me a clean heart
Oh Lord
and renew a right spirit within me

But we are unwilling to allow Him to do so if it causes us any dis-ease or loss of comfort.

Affliction are, whether we will or can see it, mercies, indeed blessings for in them we are made more like our Master for we merrely share in the afflcitions He suffered for us.

Are we willing for God to bring and use afflictions to conform us to our Master's likeness?

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Uses of Affliction 02  031314

1.  The trial of one's state, whether one is in the state of grace or not.

When we are under any affliction it is quite common for us to do a lot of questioning.
One of the uses God makes of affliction and a use we can use is in questioning whether or not we are indeed in a state of grace (saved) or not.  This is not a doubting of God's willingness or ability to save us but whether or not our confession is genuine.

Is this legitimate?  It would appear from scripture that indeed it is.
 In 2 Chronicles we read concerning Hezekiah:

2 Chronicles 32:31 NASB
. . . .God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.

In afflictions we have a sense that God has "left" us and it is normal for us to be in distress.  But one of the uses of afflcition is certainly that we might know what is truly in our hearts.  Not to be trite but the questions in this instance might be, "is Jesus really in my heart?"  "Is my confession of faith true?"  "Am I really a child of God?"

Difficult and distressing questions - but questions that need to be asked.

We know how evil and fickled our hearts are and we know there are many whose confessions are mere ascent to a set of facts and not true faith (trust) in the saving power and Lorship of Jesus.  Afflictions provide us with a context where these quesitons are not only appropriate but vital.

Consider the following:

1 Corinthians 11:28 NASB
But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

2 Corinthians 13:5 NASB
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?

Galatians 6:4 NASB
But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.

2 Peter 1:10 NASB
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

None of these passages are directly connected to any afflcition.  We are admonished to consistantly examine ourselves and our faith to determine its veracity, it's soundness.  If we are so admonished to do so outside of any affliction how much more so in afflcition.

By afflcition God tests us.  Not for His benefit but for our own.  We need to know two things.  That God is real and all He says He is and we need to know that our faith is genuine.

We should learn the blessing of afflcitions by embracing the opportunity for greater assurance of our faith.  Afflictions are on the one hand tests - tests for us.  They are tests that strip away all the comforts and causes of our ease so that we may determine wherther or not our faith/trust is truly in Him or whether it is mixed with our trust in other comforts and causes of ease.

I have grown to see afflcitions as a kind of second calling.  When I stray, as all sheep tend to do, I get into trouble (which God ordains/allows to happen).  I have learned to view the afflcition as God calling me either back to Him or to a unslullied trust in Him.  Afflcitons are never pleasant but they do have purpose and there can be no greater purpose than for us to grow in our assurance that we are indeed His.

This is one of the reasons James can write:

James 1:2-4 NASB
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, [3] knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. [4] And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Isn't is interesting that God will lead us into a place where we lose much of our comforts and there casues so that we may lack nothing - but that's for a later blog.

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Jas 1:2-3  Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  (3)  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

We need to look hard at these verses and grasp the significance of come finer points.  

"Consider," is an aorist imperative.  This means that we are to plainly and simply "consider"  It is a call to a definite preference in regards to trials.  We are to choose to do what James admonished us to do

Trials are blessings - period and we are to choose to see them as such.  We may not like them, we may struggle under them but they are always for our good and His glory.  Period.

"Joy" - this is not some weird sort of happiness.  Rather it is a confident sense of the valuable purpose and result of trials.  We express joy in giving thanks to God for His promise to provide and guide.  Usually, it is ONLY is trials that our focus is on our need for submission to His sovereignty and out desperate need for His providence and protection.  Sad fact but true.  However it IS a cause for joy to be lovingly found by the shepherd and cared for.

Gold or sivler ore has value but the value and beauty are diminished because of all the impurities in the ore.  It is only through refinements (the application of a catalyst and heat) that the true beauty and value of the gold or silver can be known and valued.  when we are in the refining trial we may and should rejoice in God's caring enough to provide for our refining.  Sure, it's usually not fun and we are not "happy" but we can rejoice in His love and desire for our sanctification.

"Various trails,"  there is not single method that God uses to purify us.  The purification needed in one life at any one moment way well be very different from any one moment in another's life.  So God brings only that trial that is appropriate for us at that time. 

Having said that let me add that God does not need our help in refining us.  I worked with a man who was in a financial time of trial.  One day he declared that he had decided to quit smoking.  I advised him not to.  That was not what God was focusing on in his life at that moment.  Also, as we talked, it became clear that he thought that if he quit smoking God would "fix" his financial issues -  In other words he thought that by doing a good work (quitting smoking) God would "re-pay" him or that he would "earn" God's relief of his financial issues.  This is simply "pagan" thinking and offensive to and in our relationship with God.

"Knowing."  Ginosko in Greek.  A knowing from experience.  In James the reference the readers would have thought of (since James is the most Jewish writing in the NT) would have been god's dealing with Israel and His discipline of them through trials in order to bring them back to Himself.  This frame of reference should move you and I to become as familiar as we can with God's dealing with His people in the OT.  It is here we will see clearly the lovingkindness of God even in the trials He brings to His people.  We will also see how they (and we) rebel against and soon forget the lessons the trials were intended to teach us.

"The testing of your faith."  Faith is used two ways in scripture.  It is used, of course, to refer to our trust in God as our good sovereign and it is used to refer to the content of what we believe the Bible teaches, the content of our faith.  Both need to be refined.

We sin, certainly, becasue the "principle of evil," as Paul says, still abides in us.  But we also sin because what we believe is, well, wrong.  God needs to refine both our trust and our knowledge and understanding.  Theology may seen like something only for the specialist but that is an arrogant error.  Theology is simply the rational and systematic study of what we may know of and from God.  Sure, it can be tough and even boring but it forms the content of our faith and that content needs to be refined just as much as the living out of that faith.  If our theology is off, our living can not be "on."

So we can view this testing as God inquiring whether we trust Him AND whether or not we trust Him appropriatly, according to His revelation.  Theology is an aid to our being able to plainly, "rightly divide" the Word and hence rightly live it out.

The result of these trials/tests of our belief and practice as essential and are great blessings.  The produce endurance, the ability to stand under a load.  The not only "clean us up," but they give us confidence and strength to stand.  And if ever we needed to know and practice right knowing and living so that we might stand, it is now.

Trails and tests are never pleasant but they are providentially productive in our seeking to glorify God and enjoy Him now and forever.