It's Awful that we learn very little until God sends trials and afflictions.
SWAN HOUSE in Buckhead Area, in Atlanta,GA, taken 01/28/2012
"Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your Word" Psalm 119:67.
David, like us, often rebelled against God and did what he wanted to do; BUT after God dealt with his sin, he was blessed because he learned through pain and affliction to hear, receive, love and obey God's word.
It's the same way with us. It's awful that we do not naturally submit ourselves to God, without Him having to teach us by affliction.
Experience demonstrates that as long as we are happy and
content and God is dealing gently with us, we are always disobeying Him in some sort of stubborn rebellion. It is only as God humbles us through afflictions, that we desire to love and obey Him above everything else.
The following photos were taken in Buckhead
Trials and afflictions come in several ways. God often humbles us by poverty, sometimes by shame, sometimes by diseases. We may suffer disappointment, loss of job, criticism by a close friend, death of someone we love, etc.
These things hurt, but God, having ordained them, causes these trials and afflictions to work for His glory and our benefit (Romans 8:28).
The hedge of thorns that God sets up to keep us in the good pasture close to Himself, should bring us to love Him more. Those thorns should cause us to rely more closely upon His promises.
It's awful that we have to learn best by trials afflictions, but it is even worse if we rebel against the hand of God when He sends them for our good and His glory!
Today, dear brothers and sisters, let us say with David, that it has been good that we have been afflicted because our afflictions are constantly driving us to love and depend upon God's truth more and more.
