Scripture Reference: – James 1:17
“Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
I dedicate this devotional to two stalwarts of the faith, both nearly 20 years my senior; I mention them in my closing paragraph.
James has a whole lot wrapped up in one glorious verse early in the first chapter of his epistle. Jesus’ brother is encouraging believers in Christ to tell themselves the truth: God gave you every single good thing in your life. He is the source of all the good you have and all the good you crave. Who God is does not change when our circumstances change. What we too often don't consider is that the worst times of our lives, the great trials and afflictions are also given to us by our Father, who does so with complete purpose. Too bad that it can take some of us a long time to discover what that purpose is.
When you read a title like the one above you may be wondering, “How in the world can there be anything good in this?” How can I find anything good in a long prison sentence? In the past, I’ve written many times to my brothers & sisters in bonds, hoping that they may see and understand that suffering precedes glory, that they may get to the point in their lives where they may say “I just have to endure all this until I reach glory!” That is true. There is an incomparably glorious future for believers. It’s why, even in the awfulness of prison life, we can have real joy in the midst of real loss. This may sound easy to put on paper, but how many of us can imagine a loss of total freedom; the sound of a massive steel door closing behind you every night.
But it’s also true there is great encouragement NOW, even in seasons of loss, where we strive to be content and stand on the word of God in the midst of such trials, knowing that God will never leave us nor forsake us. This is all really good news, especially to those who are suffering.
Just a few minutes ago, I got off the phone with Kenneth, a dear brother in Christ who has served just under 40 years, now at Corcoran State Prison, here in Central CA. Kenneth has his case in court and has been telling me for some time that he could soon be going home. He has a confirmed $65 an hour welding job - his former employer waiting for him. Having said all that, Kenneth has been struggling with health problems for quite some time. He thought he had beat prostate cancer, but it had come back.. He collapsed in the shower a few days ago, and had to be taken to an outside hospital in Fresno, where he was told that the cancer had spread throughout his body.
He admitted that things don’t look good for him, and his talk switched to him asking me all kinds of questions about burial and the afterlife. We had talked about this before, and he’s starting to grasp the great truth that when some afflictions finally win out, we can’t altogether call it a bad thing. God will comfort his heart with what Spurgeon and many others have called “dying grace.” That moment is written in God’s book and when that day arrives where we breathe our last breath, as Spurgeon said, we can see that as the greatest day of our life - for in the twinkling of an eye, we go from the rigors and suffering of this life, straight into the waiting arms of our waiting Savior.
How can that be viewed as a bad thing? Paul knew it wasn’t; he welcomed the thought of being with the Lord. We can never put out of our minds that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Isn’t the gift of grace, as God’s Salvation the greatest event in our lives?”
I would like to add to this good news the truth that some of the best gifts that God gives to His children, comes wrapped up in affliction. I’ve learned that afflictions are one of God’s greatest gifts to His children in order to bring testing, to build great faith and character, and to drive them to deeper intimacy with Him. Abraham knew this, as did Moses; Joseph certainly did; so did David and who could forget the mighty patriarch Job. His story has special meaning to every believer, as Job endured everything that Satan dished out; everything that God allowed. It’s easy to forget the “God allowed part,” especially when the trial seems unimaginably harsh and cruel.
Satan was convinced that Job would fall apart, even though God called him righteous and blameless, because who could suffer such loss without giving up. God knew all along that his servant Job would withstand the fiery darts of the evil one, even though Job may not have been so sure. Nevertheless, we can all in the midst of our own deep troubles remember that powerful declaration from Job, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, – blessed be the name of the Lord.” We should all pray for that kind of faith.
You see, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you need not fear affliction. We may not understand our troubles, the depth of our pain and suffering, and we may even cry out demanding to know why, but our God remains sovereign. In His mighty providence, just like Job, he doesn’t owe any of us an answer. As God’s people, we serve Him who is absolutely sovereign over the depth, length, and severity of the afflictions we are facing. In your troubles don’t think for a minute that God is trying to hurt you because He has some evil delight in your harm. (Romans 8:28)
Far from it. Like a surgeon, God cuts and removes and binds up, all for your good. God has a purpose behind every trial and affliction he brings our way. We saw this when the disciples were in the boat with Jesus, and they began to panic when a great storm arose. God was always in control. He knew about the storm, yet he led Christ’s disciples straight into it. Some Christians struggle a bit with the truth that God often leads his people straight into trouble, trials and afflictions of every sort. We often don’t realize it at those moments, but just like Jesus' disciples, our faith is being tested. In our Savior’s rebuke, He reminded His disciples of their lack of faith.
He brings healing through hurting. The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 came to this conclusion and penned his 9th stanza to assure us of this very truth: when affliction shows up in your life you can be sure that God is there and that He has good and gracious gifts to give you in your troubles. All too often, in the middle of our troubles, we forget that God is behind the scenes, in control of every moment of our distress. When we are hurting deeply, it’s hard to recognize any good that can come out of our mess. God knows otherwise.
No one learned more about afflictions than David. He was seemingly always in deep trouble, many times with his life on the line. He always began his Psalms with a deep cry to God, at times practically demanding that God “answer him speedily” (Psalm 143:7) Earlier, David proclaimed, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep thy word. You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.” (Psalm 119:67-68)
We don’t realize it when we’re about to give up and say, "I’m done", but praise God that our afflictions serve as a tool to drive us to the word of God; as David said, – “to keep my statutes.” Sometimes trials seem too overwhelming, and other times, we have become best friends with the world, where like Demas, we do throw in the towel, and shipwreck from the faith.
I want this truth to sink into your heart. God has good and gracious gifts to give you in affliction. That is why, dear faithful one, you should fear not.
Before we hear the Psalmist himself, testify to this, you may be wondering, who is the author of Psalm 119? The short answer is we don’t know for sure. Many have thought David penned this glorious acrostic poem. But others have said Ezra, or Daniel or Jeremiah, or Solomon or even Hezekiah. Reading the Psalm against the background of these men’s life circumstances is an interesting and profitable task in and of itself. If you were to go back and learn what you could from the scriptures about each of these men you would find they all faced difficulties, trials, and afflictions. This is a common lot of those who follow the LORD.
As we read Psalm 119, we have the distinct privilege of entering the prayer closet of a faithful man of God who is patiently enduring great suffering. If you were to read the whole Psalm you would hear many references to his affliction. He speaks of governing authorities devising wicked plans against him (v.23). He faces verbal assaults upon his character (v.42), others have slandered him (v.51). He describes himself as ensnared by the cords of the wicked (v.61). Overall, he describes himself as afflicted (v.67, 71). His very life hangs in the balance (v.87). Others want him dead (v.95). He summarizes his situation as one where “trouble and anguish have come upon me.” (v.143).
Yet, in one of the most profound stanzas in the whole Psalm the author testifies to God’s goodness and faithfulness in his affliction. He praises God for the GOOD gifts that he has received from God as a result of his affliction.
The Apostle Peter was a man of profound faith who had a grasp of the sufferings of the jews to whom he was writing. He did his best to prepare his listeners for trials, suffering, persecution, knowing that whatever trouble comes our way should eventually be expected. He couldn’t be more clear than in l Peter 4:12, declaring, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy."
Yes, Peter taught us who believe that we can actually mainjoy in the face of suffering. I take great comfort along with my incarcerated friends in l Peter 1:9. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Every person who belongs to God must be prepared for the troubles of this world, some mild, and some extreme, but eventually trouble will become a reality. When it’s your turn to face some storm, you can be ready, knowing that bad news does not call for Christians to fall apart and lose hope. One of the verses I’ve explained and asked my grandchildren to memorize is Psalms 112:7, – “We will not be afraid of bad news, His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
It is my hope that as you read and reflect on this stanza you too will have eyes to see the good gifts that God is giving you through your suffering and that this will cause you to praise Him all more. Let’s learn from the Psalmist:
65 You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word.
66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray,but now I keep your word.
68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.
69 The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts;
70 their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law.
71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Do you see the good and gracious gifts that God has given the Psalmist through his affliction? Let’s look at a few of them together.
1.Trials gives you the opportunity to see God’s faithfulness in your life.
If I asked if you would like to see the faithfulness of God on display, tangibly, in your very own life, my guess is you would probably say “Absolutely!” But if that gift came wrapped in an affliction would your answer remain the same? Sometimes it is difficult to see that God could be doing something good even while we walk through the dark valleys of His providence and face evil on every side. Yet, by God’s grace, and perhaps after some time, we begin to catch up with God and see His wisdom and goodness toward us in our affliction. Praise God that this is what so many of my incarcerated brethren have experienced. That’s the Psalmist’s experience, at least. He says, “You have dealt well with your servant, O LORD, according to your word.” (v.65)
What an amazing conclusion given all the Psalmist has gone through and all that he is facing! He has been through the fire, has experienced it, and testified to it: God has dealt well with His servant. The Psalmist, through his trials, affirms the sovereignty of God and understands that while God Himself does no evil to the Psalmist, God does sovereignly permit evil to come to His servant for good purposes. It is in this sense that the Psalmist sees God dealing, and dealing well, with His servant through the affliction that has come upon him. How it is that God has dealt well with him is revealed throughout the rest of the stanza.
But for now, it’s enough to see that the Psalmist’s humble and thankful conclusion concerning God’s dealings with him is to the effect of “you have treated me well in this.” The Psalmist has seen God’s faithfulness directly in his life through the affliction he has endured. I imagine that you have experienced the same through other trials in your past. Perhaps there are some you still don’t fully understand, but nonetheless you can surely conclude, you have dealt well with your servant, O LORD.
2. God trains your moral discernment and perception
The Psalmist offers a prayer “teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments” and in doing so, he recognizes the opportunity to not just know but to live and apply God’s word in the midst of his affliction. The unique trials that the Psalmist is facing are a gift because they force him to humble himself before God, asking for help so that he might judge wisely how he should act in his situation. He does not want the affliction to pass without having his moral discernment trained and exercised for God’s glory.
He believes in God’s commandments and knows they are the main source of wisdom and guidance in his affliction. In his trials, the Psalmist does not see God’s word as irrelevant. Rather, he sees it as the refreshing fountain of divine instruction that he must drink from so that his spiritual palate is cleansed, and he can rightly taste and see what is good and then go about doing it. Like the Psalmist, in your affliction ask the Lord to train your moral discernment, this is a gracious gift from God.
3. God brings you to greater trust, obedience and dependence on Him
Another gift that God graciously gives in affliction is the gift of greater obedience to himself. We can begin to see why the Psalmist previously said that God had dealt well with him in his affliction. In humility he acknowledges, before I was afflicted, I went astray.
The idea of going astray captures the Psalmist’s admission that his life had begun to be characterized by a waywardness. He had allowed certain sins to gain a foothold in his life. But God used the affliction as a gracious gift to break the pattern of the Psalmist’s wandering and also to bring the Psalmist back to Himself. This has been a hard and bitter lesson for some of my brothers and sisters in bonds to fully grasp. This is why the Psalmist says before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.
In other words, all things considered, the Psalmist is grateful for his affliction because God has graciously used it to restore him and bring about greater obedience to His word. Is this a glorious thing or what? Can you see God dealing well with you through your suffering? Have you noticed him using suffering to grab your attention, reveal your sin, and direct your heart back to Him? Are you in affliction now? Do you hear him shouting with love for your return?
C.S. Lewis has put it well, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” This dear brother suffered his share of loss!
May we all hear loud and clear and respond in humble obedience to God in our pain and suffering. Renewed obedience because of affliction is a gracious gift from our good God.
4. God demonstrates His righteous character and good works
Reflecting on the fact that God has used affliction to bring the Psalmist to greater obedience to God he cannot help but praise God for his goodness:
68 You are good, and do good, teach me your statutes
There is a simplicity and yet a profundity to the Psalmist’s praise here. He first acknowledges that God is good. There is no evil in God. Now and forever, He is good. Goodness is part of His unchanging character. God could not be evil if He tried.
Likewise, God could never desire evil nor ever do anything evil. God is good and therefore He does good. His good character necessitates His good conduct. Or as the Dean of my seminary said, “Because God is Who He is, He does what He does.” Since God is good, He must do good in everything that He does!
What a glorious and comforting truth! What affliction or suffering are you experiencing in recent days or in times past. How did you react? What trials are you facing? Beloved child of God, Our Lord is unchanging, and He is good, and so whatever you are facing you can know that God is at work doing good for you. When you understand that, then you will understand your responsibility to hold on to Him and to His word and to learn to grow in obedience as He works for good through your suffering. Therefore, ask God as the Psalmist does, “teach me your statutes.”
5. God provides opportunity to prove your loving faithfulness to Him and others
Another gift that God gives in affliction is the opportunity to demonstrate true faith through loving obedience to Him. If you want to know and show that you love God with all your heart, then trials are a good and gracious gift from Him. The Psalmist says,
The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts.
We should notice that this is not a prideful and self-centered boast but rather a quiet and joyful confidence in God after having passed a test. The word for smear can mean “stick, glue, plaster.” The idea is that proud and evil men have completely ruined his reputation. It’s as if the Psalmist’s true identity cannot even be seen anymore. Lies have been plastered all over him. Yet instead of reviling in return, or fighting back, he sees it as an occasion to prove his whole-hearted obedience and trust of God’s precepts.
When one experiences a measure of success in battle it brings great encouragement to the soul and powerful assurance to the heart. The Psalmist has picked up his shield of faith and has deflected the fiery arrows of accusations and is still in the fight and ready for more. The Psalmist has not returned evil for evil. He has made God’s law his delight (v.70). Unlike his enemies, He has maintained a sensitive conscience, one that joyfully obeys God’s word.
He characterizes his enemies as having hearts that are “unfeeling like fat” which is probably a Hebrew idiom for their minds having become dull and insensitive. His enemies have no love for God and their evil actions show their rebellion to God. Even so, the Psalmist sees the evil actions of his enemies as a gift from a good God who wishes to give opportunity to His servant so that he might overcome them and prove his loving faithfulness to God.
6. God grants you greater understanding of His Word
There are still more gifts God gives in affliction. In the next verse the Psalmist acknowledges as much when he says, “It is good for me that I was afflicted.” The word used for affliction here can also mean to be oppressed or humbled or humiliated. The Psalmist had been brought low. But he noticed that in his humiliation God had given him the gift of a humble heart which more than almost anything else enables one to do the best learning. He said, “It is good for me that I was, that I might learn your statutes.” The Psalmist found himself more than ever understanding God’s word, learning the word of God, devouring the word of God, living the word of God, and delighting in the word of God. I think he comprehended in a way He never did before the incomparable wisdom of God’s word, the glorious nature of God’s promises, the righteousness of God’s statutes, and understood with clarity what it meant for his life in his current situation. All of this brought great comfort to him in his affliction and caused him to rightly value the word of God. This leads us to the last gift the Psalmist mentions that God has graciously given him in his affliction.
7. God Word becomes our greatest treasure: The bread & water to our souls
God has one final precious gift that He gives us in affliction, that is the gift of a heart that truly values God’s word. Do you desire a heart that treasures the word of God? Do you want a heart that greatly appreciates the word of God? Thankfully God desires His servants to treasure Him and His word, and He graciously uses affliction to that very end. Look how the Psalmist concludes this stanza:
72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
The Psalmist recognized that God dealt well with him. God brought the Psalmist back to Him. God used affliction to humble the Psalmist, to teach the Psalmist his word, that he might value the word as he ought. God’s law, which comes from His very mouth, is better to the Psalmist than thousands of gold and silver pieces. His point is that when you put the word of God side by side with anything else of value, even that which is of greatest value like silver and gold, it is not even close. God’s word is better to the Psalmist.
He gets Proverbs 15:16, “Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.” He also understands Proverbs 11:4, “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” Silver and gold cannot deliver him. Silver and gold cannot save him. Silver and gold cannot do him the good that God has done for him. The Psalmist knows that silver and gold can't...
... purchase a greater understanding of God’s faithfulness
... afford one greater moral discernment and perception.
... turn the straying believer back to God.
... compare to the delight that comes with a clear conscience and proven faithfulness.
... grant a person a deep understanding of God’s word.
... cause a person to value God’s word as the most precious commodity in existence.
These gifts are invaluable. They are truly priceless. They are some of the best gifts that He gives to His children this side of heaven. They cannot be bought with precious metals. Yet they are given graciously by a good God to His faithful children in His Word through their affliction. This is what God does. So fear not faithful, God gives good gifts in affliction. For in and through your affliction your heavenly Father is good and doing good.
May you have eyes to see in the midst of your pain and suffering, the ways our gracious God is giving you good gifts, and may it lead you to praise Him, now and forever.
The message here has proven true in MY life, as it has in so many of my incarcerated friends who can only see their incarceration as a gift from above. Yes, a road filled with many thorns and thistles, yet a road paved in glory. Thank you Lord for the ability to resent this lesson. May your Holy Spirit reign as our greatest friend as we continue our earthly journey, Grant us a sensitive heart for others in the household of faith who are traveling down the same road.
Final Thought
This lesson answers issues and questions I have been asking for the past ten years since the Lord granted me this affliction (Central Pain Syndrome) that I now see as His gracious gift to me. I honestly don’t know where I’d be today in my walk with the Lord had He not seen fit to bestow upon me my “personal bitter pill of adversity.” It was this pill that became the perfect medicine for my soul, one that has led me into adversity, through it, with God coming alongside me every step of the way, giving me the assurance that in my weakness, He makes me strong. I attribute these ten years of affliction to my profound intimacy with the Lord.
I was never happy with the quick answer many have given. We tend not to think of the greatest trials in our life as God’s life preserver to His children. Several of my older and wiser brothers in Christ get this, as they have been on the trail that I’ve traveled. Often, I find older, wiser, godly men have a deep understanding of God’s Word because of their own life experience.
I’ve always seen one consistent factor in both of them; Through their afflictions, their pain and suffering, they have been driven to the sanctity of God’s Word. Thank you Beryl and Merlyn for your inspiring faith that has helped me to continue on with my race toward the finish line. David’s wisdom in Psalm 119:92 always stands out. “Unless your word had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.”
Thank you God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit.
From: Fight the Good Fight of Faiith / Life Journal: By Gregg Harris
Comments