It Was Worth It

These three verses all use the verb “afflicted,” which comes from the noun “affliction,” an old word that means any difficult or painful circumstance. Afflictions come in all shapes and sizes. An affliction can be as small as an aggravating head cold or as large as a major illness, the loss of a job, public persecution, or rumors spread by your enemies. Or an affliction could be the sort of cosmic suffering Job experienced. One writer I consulted said that we don’t need to seek affliction because sooner or later, it will seek us. I’m sure that’s true. Sometimes our troubles come because we are just plain stupid. And we may have big trouble when we are repeatedly stupid. Other times we suffer because we live in a fallen world where disease spreads, babies get sick, and volcanoes erupt in the Congo. Sometimes we suffer not because we do wrong but because we do right and someone else doesn’t like it. So being good isn’t a guarantee that you won’t have problems.

Here’s a verse to consider as we begin this study: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). Most of us probably like that second part about deliverance, but my sermon is mostly about the first part, the many afflictions the righteous suffer. If you want a big idea before we begin, here it is: It’s not what happens to us that matters, it how we respond that makes the difference. The writer of Psalm 119 had a lot to say about trouble. Evidently he had suffered so much that he had become a sort of expert in the field. The three verses of our text remind us forcefully that God is intimately involved in our troubles. Nothing happens—no matter how bad it may seem—by accident.

Your Troubles Are Not About You

Last night my friend Bruce Thorn called me from Alabama. I’ve known Bruce for almost 40 years and have come to appreciate him as a friend who seems to know when to call because he always has a timely word from the Lord. Just before we finished talking, he commented that many Christians mistakenly think that “church is about us.” But it’s not about us, it’s about God. Worship isn’t about whether or not we like the music; worship is about God! As I thought about it, it hit me that Bruce had given me a crucial insight for this sermon. Your troubles are not about you. Your troubles are about God. They are sent to teach you things about God you couldn’t learn any other way. Our three verses give us a panoramic view of how God uses affliction to teach us his Word and to build our faith so that we end up closer to him than we were before our troubles began.