Uses of Affliction 04 031714

Uses of Afflcition 04

3.  Conviction of sin.

Now we quit preaching and go to meddleing :0.

There is nothing like an afflcition to clearly expose the depth of the remaining corruption we need to address.  Nothing can expose the sin still lurking in our hearts like a good ol' afflcition.

Over the past 15 months or so as we have dealt with a certain amount of afflcition.  Through it I have discovered sinfulness I never would have named as being my own.  I have never known the depth of my self-love and selfishness until the Lord brought our afflcition.

Even as I was examining my faith and my attachment to the world (Uses 1 and 2) I was overwhelmed by the insidiousness of my sin.  My pride and resentment, my presumption, my poor stewardship - it all was exposed to a degree I had never experienced.

Prayer was the first to fall.  I discovered that many of my prayers were a redundant chorus of "me me me my my my mine mine mine IIIIIIII."  I was shocked to say the least.  But I would not have noticed had we not been under an affliction.  They tend to get your focus on yourself in a real unhealthy way.

It took real focus and effort to correct my self-absorbed prayers but they were sin and had to be confronted and corrected - it certainly was convicting.

But more than the mechanics of our walk, afflcitions really drill down into our hearts and expose the silt and "stuff" - the sin - that still resides there.  Anger, pride, resentment, presumption are just a few I've found and they were there in very subtle forms - but they were there.

They say that the most important thing to a shepherd is the fence that keeps the sheep in.  That, from my experience, is very true.  Afflictions come where and when we are outside the fence and they come to draw us back in.  That's how good Shepherds work with their sheep.

We need to pay serious heed to the fact that "conviction" means we have been found guilty.  Conviciton is a fact.  Yes, we may have feelings that attend it but it is not a feeling.  It is a cold hard fact!  And affliction should bring conviction.

We need the heat of afflcitions to expose and draw off the dross in us, the sin in us.  Without the refining heat of afflcition the dross simply keeps accumulating until we are full of it.

I read a piece today that stated something on the order of, 'In Christ we never lack anything we need.  If we do not have it we may assume we do not need it (yet, if at all).'
Inversely may we not assume that if God takes something away it is becasue we need for it to be taken away?  I think so.

But funadmentaly and critically afflictions bring (or should bring) conviction of sin.  God is getting our attention and calling us to a deeper examination of our hearts.  Do not assume yu will not find any sin there!  You must!  And in finding it you must accept the conviction (fact of your guilt) and then repentantly address the sin.

Finger Thinking through James 009 050313

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.