Ps 119:71– When Affliction is Good

 

There are many apocryphal stories and quotes floating around about C. S. Lewis. This may be one of them.

I read where a man who was dealing with doubts once questioned the British author asking, “Why do the righteous suffer?”

“Why not?” Lewis responded. “They’re the only ones who can take it.”

Adversity, affliction, and problems are not something that we embellish and embrace. We want to avoid hard times, suffering, and pain if at all possible. However, our verse today provides another perspective.

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.”

Affliction causes some folks to become resentful. To question God. To doubt their faith. To bitterly complain, “Why me?” Yet, the Psalmist says that affliction can be good. Our problems may provide an unseen, unrealized benefit. Our suffering may result in a blessing.

How can affliction be good?

#1 Affliction may be good when it causes us to change.

The wise man wrote, “Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, As do stripes the inner depths of the heart” (Prov. 20:30).

Although a paraphrase and not a literal translation, the GNT renders this verse. “Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.”

Some experiences, though unpleasant at the time, may serve as God’s “wake up call.” When we listen, we learn. We change. We improve. We grow.

#2 Affliction may test and prove our faith.

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (Jas. 1:2-3).

Our response to problems often reveals the depth of our faith and spiritual strength we have acquired over time. We see how we’ve grown. We are buoyed by our ability to withstand the pressure and the pain. We find joy in passing the test. And rejoice in the fortitude and faithfulness we’ve developed.

#3 Affliction may be God’s method of correction.

The author of Hebrews offers one explanation for affliction. It may be God’s way of chastening and disciplining us (Heb. 12:5-11). Just like earthly fathers correct and discipline their children, our Heavenly Father uses problems to teach us a lesson.

Our text says that through affliction we can learn God’s statues. Hardship and heartache is beneficial when it brings us to a deeper understanding of God’s Word.

#4 Affliction may serve as a protection from something more serious.

We’ve heard the expression, “it was a blessing in disguise.” What was first perceived as a problem actually served to prevent something more serious or even catastrophic from happening. Also a problem may be the catalyst for future success.

Somerset Maugham, the English writer, once wrote a story about a janitor at St Peter’s Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him. Jobless, the man invested his meager savings in a tiny business. He prospered, bought another, expanded, and ended up with a chain of stores that today would be worth millions.

One day the man’s banker said, “You’ve done well for an illiterate, but where would you be if you could read and write?” “Well,” replied the man, “I’d be janitor of St. Peter’s Church in Neville Square.”

#5 Affliction is good when it builds character.

The apostle Paul could personally testify, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom. 5: 3-4).

Suffering. Endurance. Character. Hope. What a positive outcome from a seemingly negative beginning.

Affliction, adversity, problems, and pain can either make us bitter or better. When we allow God to make us, mold us, and shape us according to His will and Word, we will become all that He created us to be.

Finally, this observation also attributed to C. S. Lewis. “Affliction is often that thing which prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.”

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman