Key Verse: Verse 71 - "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes."
Key Words: It is good for me that I have been afflicted
Surely, the last thing we think about during affliction is the fact that it is good.
As you read the Word of God you find that affliction is good.
Paul had a thorn in the flesh, and he asked God on three occasions to remove it, but God said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Paul’s affliction allowed him to experience the grace of God.
We read in II Corinthians 1:4, “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
Our affliction allows us to comfort others when they are going through a time of affliction. It actually becomes a ministry.
It was the affliction of the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace that revealed the power and deliverance of God.
So the psalmist is right when he says, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”
I am not a connoisseur of great art, but from time to time a painting or picture will really speak a clear, strong message to me. Some time ago I saw a picture of an old burned-out mountain shack. All that remained was the chimney...the charred debris of what had been that family’s sole possession. In front of this destroyed home stood an old grandfather-looking man dressed only in his underclothes with a small boy clutching a pair of patched overalls. It was evident that the child was crying. Beneath the picture were the words which the artist felt the old man was speaking to the boy. They were simple words, yet they presented a profound theology and philosophy of life. Those words were, “Hush child, God ain’t dead!”
That vivid picture of that burned-out mountain shack, that old man, the weeping child, and those words “God ain’t dead” keep returning to my mind. Instead of it being a reminder of the despair of life, it has come to be a reminder of hope! I need reminders that there is hope in this world. In the midst of all of life’s troubles and failures, I need mental pictures to remind me that all is not lost as long as God is alive and in control.
What to do:
✞ Remember, God doesn’t do things to us but allows things for us.
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