PSALM 119:71 – It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”
THEME OF THE DAY: WE NEED TIMES OF FROST IN OUR LIVES. Let’s get this out of the way. No Christian wakes up one morning and says with sincerity the words of the Psalmist in today’s scripture. Allow me to paraphrase his statement with a few additions, “Good morning, Lord. I am so glad and thankful for the trial I am in. I cannot praise You enough for this season of suffering You have brought into my life that is so painful. I am keenly aware of what You are teaching me through this afflicting time. Again, thank You, Lord.”
No, to arrive at the point where we find the Psalmist, an embracing of suffering with a rejoicing heart and mean it, doesn’t happen by a “zap” of spiritual maturity from heaven. It is developed and that over a period of time. It only comes by frequent trips to the Refiner’s fire to burn away our temptation to complain in times of suffering; Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10), and being repeatedly pruned by the Master’s Hand to cut away the branches of comfort and ease which prevent us from profiting from suffering – Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2).
But there is another experience in the believer’s life that God uses to get us to the point of glad submission in suffering and affliction. It is a time of spiritual winter or barrenness. We may define this painful work of God by the additional words in the prophecy of Isaiah – Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God (Isaiah 50:10). This is the believer who does not sense God’s Presence, is not experiencing His comfort, feels abandoned and left in spiritual darkness. It is not chastisement due to sin nor are the feelings true. It is the good, but mysterious work of God, maturing His child by weaning him or her from feelings to faith. It is painful but fruitful. And what it reveals is God’s commitment to get us to the place of the Psalmist in today’s scripture regardless of the pain. It is His commitment illustrated in the story below.
A young man was trying to establish himself as a peach grower. He had worked hard and invested his all in a peach orchard which blossomed wonderfully—then came a frost. He did not go to church the next Sunday, nor the next, nor the next. His minister went to see him to find the reason. The young fellow exclaimed: “I’m not coming any more. Do you think I can worship a God who cares for me so little that He will let a frost kill all my peaches?” The old minister looked at him a few moments in silence, then said kindly: “God loves you better than He does your peaches. He knows that while peaches do better without frosts, it is impossible to grow the best men without frosts. His object is to grow men, not peaches.”
PRAYER: “Father, may I learn not to complain and rebel when You bring ‘seasons of frost’ in my life to kill besetting sins.”
QUOTE: “God uses suffering and affliction to purge us of what prevents a fruitful life for His glory.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim