PSALM 119:67 – Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your Word.

THEME OF THE DAY. LET SUFFERING DO ITS GOOD WORK. Let’s take a journey back to a beautiful garden. It was perfect. Really. No thorns, no poison ivy . . . it was paradise. God made it so and then placed His choice and prized creation in its midst to work and enjoy it; Adam and Eve. Then it happened – Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:1-8).

Disobedience to the Loving Creator brought into the human experience human suffering, sorrow, sadness, and all the other painful results of sin. Nothing, absolutely nothing good ever comes from living contrary to God’s desires and commands. Adam and Eve painfully realized this. And so does every human being who has ever lived and lives. Disobey God, and the very thing we long for and were created for – happiness and inner contentment will elude us. Yet, God in His great love and mercy will take something horrible and use it for good. Yes, even our sin. Yes, even our disobedience. Yes, even our suffering.

In today’s scripture, the Psalmist has learned a valuable lesson on what suffering may do in the lives of God’s children. But to get where he is, we need a thorough understanding of what God is doing in the work of salvation. Salvation is God reclaiming a people to do what they were created for – obey Him. In simple terms, “Christ came to fix in the Garden what was broken beyond human ability to repair – restore, even re-create, a people able and longing to obey God.” Once we let our minds and hearts settle on the ultimate purpose of salvation, we may see the lesson the Psalmist is giving us. And the lesson? God uses suffering to teach us obedience to His Word. How so? Well, a couple of ways. Suffering weans us from the comfort of the world. A comfortable Christian will be a complacent Christian. Having life “easy” and relatively problem-free is a road map to becoming a God-dishonoring backslider. Another way suffering teaches us obedience is that it drives us close to God for strength in our suffering. And what happens when a person gets close to God? They love Him. And how do we show God we love Him – obedience.

God is so good and gracious. He takes what came into the world by disobedience – suffering – and uses it to teach us what we are created to do – obey Him. And in obeying Him we not only show Him our love, but enjoy the abundant life Christ came to give.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to always respond to suffering with a glad heart of submission to Your will.”

QUOTE: “We must not mind a little suffering in this life for it is one of God’s choice means of molding us”