SEASONS OF ADVERSITY

Even words meant to comfort and encourage can seem empty and trite when our hearts are heavy and our minds are distracted with mounting perplexities.  We want encouragement, yet we know encouragement alone isn’t enough. It’s not going to fix the problems we face and it’s not going to move us into action until we know what action is needed! There are times when we find ourselves in the midst of a problem that doesn’t go away, seldom lets up, and may have become a permanent part of our life. The “unchangeables” and long-term challenges are especially taxing and resilient to fleeting words of praise or exhortation. All too often, they sound like “tinkling brass,” not loving words that touch the heart where the heart hurts most.

If we are going to be encouraged, we need something more than any human being can give to us—we need to experience the listening ear of a God who genuinely cares and thoroughly knows what we are going through.

We need to hear words that assure our hearts we are loved and direct our thoughts toward truths that liberate our soul.  Then, and only then, will we face our Goliaths with confidence and conquer them in the strength of the Lord.

Perhaps you are presently facing some of the toughest obstacles of your life.

The Lord urges His children to call upon Him in prayer when they are in trouble. Notice the Lord is not just telling us to pray so we are comforted, but pray so we are delivered!  Again in Psalm 34:19 we read, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” Deliverance may not come in the form that we imagined, but it will come to those who rely on the Lord Jesus Christ and cry out to Him.

The worth of an anchor is never appreciated so deeply as when it holds the ship securely through the howling wind and raging sea.

The trouble with rushing to end adversity…

Perhaps you have heard this story. A little boy watched with curiosity as a butterfly cocoon he found seemed to tremble with life. He decided to bring it home so he could continue watching it. To his amazement, a little hole in the cocoon began to appear as the insect inside struggled to wiggle his way to freedom. But then the cocoon stopped wiggling, and the little boy wondered if the butterfly inside was trapped and unable to make its way out. He decided to help it out, so he carefully pried open the cocoon so the butterfly could easily escape. To his disappointment, the butterfly did not fly away, but spun around on the table unable to fly. His body was plump, but the wings were shriveled and unable to unfurl. The boy continued to watch, expecting to see the butterfly take off at any moment, but nothing happened. He did not understand his kindness was actually a curse to the butterfly because the struggle to free itself from the cocoon was a necessary part of its transformation. This difficult process is essential in order to force fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so it would be able to take its flight. By removing the need for the butterfly to struggle, the little boy actually crippled it and rendered it unable to fly at all.

God always provides a way of escape. He has practical solutions He wants us to discover. Yet we easily forget real joy is not found in being free from our problems but in becoming what God intends us to be, fulfilling the purpose for which we were created, and growing in our faith and understanding of our God. The very thing we actually desire depends upon our willingness to trust the wise provisions and work of our Heavenly Father.  What we need most, then, is not instant deliverance, but grace, faith, and strength sufficient to meet our challenges, patience to endure them until they accomplish their purpose, and wisdom to find righteous solutions for them.  We need relief but not necessarily a trouble-free or immediate escape.

To this end David testified, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted: that I might learn thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:71)

The Lord Jesus Christ is working in us, even through the difficult things we experience, so we might enjoy the many blessings of Christian maturity. What He is doing is good, because He is good and He wants to finish our stories with happy endings.  The question is whether or not we entrust our lives to Him and commit ourselves to His care and work. We are instructed to look to Jesus who is both “the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). We “look” by focusing our attentions on Christ, not on our present difficulties, and by keeping our goals on the good things He is accomplishing, not on the ease and relief we might want in this life.

When Jesus looked toward the day He would accomplish our redemption on the cross of Calvary, He did not look at the pain but at the joy that would be His as a result of His pain and suffering. 

We are to do the same, not looking at the temporal things of this world but at the happy rewards of our faith given in this life and lasting forever.

Obstacles become the very means by which we climb to higher spiritual ground when we truly believe “that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

We will give up, become bitter and cynical, or live miserable Christian lives unless we believe we will see God’s goodness in this life as well as the next. David said, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).

No matter what difficulties you are going through right now, no matter what means God is providing to sustain you, and no matter how this adversity will be used for good in your life, there are three things you need to remember so your trials do not thwart your progress or become a stumbling block to you:

The little phrase “all things” takes in every catastrophe, every failure, every disappointment, every injustice, and every event both good and bad that comes into our lives. 

There are no exceptions for the Bible does not say, “some things.”  It firmly asserts that God causes all things to work out for our good.  God does not spare us from all things, but He turns every single one around to accomplish good.  What Satan and others mean for evil, God miraculously and skillfully overrules in the lives of His children. Cancer is not good.  Divorce is not good. Credit card debt is not good, and injustice is not good.  Yet our God promises He will work out everything, including all of these, for our good. The worst thing that ever happens to you or me is part of the “all things” spoken of in this passage.  Life’s greatest tragedies, disappointments, and failures are often the very means God uses to grant us our greatest blessings, answers to prayer, and successes.  When this happens, we are filled with both joy and awe because we see our God is all-powerful, good, and gracious.  He is not thwarted in the least by evil.

The next phrase in Romans 8:28 gives us the condition of this wonderful promise.  It says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” All things do not work together for good to everyone born.  This promise is not to those who attend church, sing in the choir, or memorize Scripture.  It is specifically given to those who love God.  How do we know we love God?  Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).  When our great desire is to love God, we want to love what He loves and hate what He hates. The Bible tells those who love the Lord to hate evil (Psalm 97:10). As Jesus loved God and others, so we are to also. And as Jesus hated sin and loved mercy and justice, so we are to do the same and follow in His steps.  To love God is to delight in the things our Lord delights in and to esteem Him so highly it is our joy to emulate Him in every way.

The second part of the condition says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” This promise is conditional upon our love for Christ and our willingness to be conformed to His purpose. God has a purpose for each believer’s life.  That purpose is good and perfectly suited to our gifts and abilities. Yet not all believers are willing to yield their lives to God’s purpose.  Instead, they ignore the Lord and pursue their own interests and wills. Their greatest goal in life is to acquire the dreams of their hearts and imaginations, not fulfilling the purpose of God in their lives.  Sometimes these believers attend church and even serve in ministry yet will not yield their lives to God. They search the Bible for assurance or promises that God will give them what they want, not for promises that God will conform them into what He wants them to be.

When we will not yield ourselves to God’s purpose for our lives, we cannot claim the promise of Romans 8:28.

Psalm 86:14 begins with the psalmist stating his observation that the proud man treats the righteous with contempt and unjust cruelty.  The vicious hatred in the heart of the arrogant is aroused by nothing more than the righteous behavior of a child of God. The psalmist went on to say, “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth” (Psalm 86:15). He then proceeded to contrast this cold and heartless attitude of the arrogant with the goodness and glory of God.

The proud are cruel, but God is filled with compassion.  The proud are unforgiving and selfish, but God is ready to forgive the offenses of the penitent and selflessly give, even to the unkind.  The proud are intolerant and quick to anger, yet God is patient and willing to bear injuries and offenses for a long time.  The proud are unmerciful and easily provoked, while God is full of mercy and pity toward offenders deserving otherwise.  The proud cannot be trusted for they are characterized by lies and deceit.  God is worthy of our implicit trust, for He is characterized by truth and cannot lie or deceive.

Adversity is never senseless for the believer.

In verses 31 through 39 of Romans 8, Paul addresses many of the most common questions and fears tenderhearted believers express when unexplained trials come their way.  The first question usually asked is, “Why?” Verse 29 tells us why we suffer all things—because God is using them to conform us to be like Christ.  Paul then goes on to answer the common fear of rejection in verse 31, “What shall we then say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us?”  Paul assures us since God is for us, no one rising up against us can prevail.  He then goes on to remind us even Jesus was not spared the “all things” that come into a life.  Holy character does not prevent one from suffering. No one has ever been holy and perfect as Christ, yet He experienced adversity and hardship, betrayal, injustice and unspeakable pain. God loved His Son with a love we cannot begin to comprehend; yet He allowed Him to suffer so we could be spared.  God did not allow Jesus to be afflicted because He was rejecting or condemning Him.  He allowed the suffering because it had a purpose and was the only way He could accomplish our redemption.

Verse 33 is a wonderful response to the common feelings of guilt that often plague believers going through a particularly difficult trial.  Paul assures the believer by asking the question, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?  It is God that justifieth.”  Paul is saying that God has completely forgiven and justified the believer and nothing can be held against him.  Certainly the “all things” that come into his life are not punishment for his sins.  Verse 34 goes on to ask, “Who is he that condemneth?  It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

He not only embraces us with His love but daily showers us with meticulous provisions for our minds, bodies, spiritual growth, futures, and even our failures in this life.  He gives us the gift of His Son to be our Savior, our counselor, and our friend as we journey onward toward our homecoming in heaven.  He provides us with His Holy Spirit to comfort us in any trouble and teaches us how to live our daily lives. He gives us His Word filled with promises that are able to build us up and shape our character to become like His own divine nature.  No wonder Peter was able to confidently declare to other believers that grace and peace would be multiplied to them through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.  And no wonder he can emphatically state, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue”  (2 Peter 1:3).

We love and trust Him because He loves us.

The more we know and understand how loving and good God is, the more we respond with love and trust toward Him. John tells us, “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). We do not love Him before He loves us.  We love Him because He loves us first, even in our most sinful state of imperfection. Not only does the knowledge and awareness of God’s love cause us to love the Lord in return, it also causes us to put our trust in His care. David rejoiced when he meditated on God’s kindness and love, and exclaimed in Psalm 36:7, “How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.”

In the previous verses in Psalm 36, the psalmist contrasted the treasures of the Lord, comparing His mercy to the vastness and majesty of the heavens, and His righteousness to the clouds far above us and far beyond our mortal capability of comprehending. He compared again his righteousness to mountains, which are stable, strong, and unmovable.  He compared His judgments to the vast depth of the ocean in all its power, mystery, and beauty.  After describing God’s greatness, he states with awe the incomprehensible fact that this same God preserves both people and wildlife by His great power. Following this, the psalmist moved toward the capstone of his description with a powerful exclamation of his wonder as he recognized God’s tremendous love and kindness.

The psalmist stated God’s love and kindness are excellent, or in other words, precious beyond measure.  He expressed himself by saying “how excellent” because he could not comprehend the half of it or find a comparison to come close to adequately describing it.  This powerful, merciful, righteous, and all-wise God condescends to tenderly love His children with a depth of personal, individual love no man has ever known.  For this reason, the psalmist concluded God’s children are able to confidently rely on God’s promises of protection and care.  The Lord overshadows His people just as a mother hen tenaciously protects her young or as an eagle spreads its wings to cover and protect its eaglets.  We, the little ones of God, are free to run to the safety of our loving Father and hide ourselves under His promises of care and protection.  We do not fight the enemy threatening or frightening us, but rather we leave the fight to the One able to fight and protect by His strength and power.  

The psalmist stated God’s love and kindness are excellent, or in other words, precious beyond measure.  He expressed himself by saying “how excellent” because he could not comprehend the half of it or find a comparison to come close to adequately describing it.  This powerful, merciful, righteous, and all-wise God condescends to tenderly love His children with a depth of personal, individual love no man has ever known.  For this reason, the psalmist concluded God’s children are able to confidently rely on God’s promises of protection and care.  The Lord overshadows His people just as a mother hen tenaciously protects her young or as an eagle spreads its wings to cover and protect its eaglets.  We, the little ones of God, are free to run to the safety of our loving Father and hide ourselves under His promises of care and protection.  We do not fight the enemy threatening or frightening us, but rather we leave the fight to the One able to fight and protect by His strength and power.  

Because He loves us in this gentle and tender way, we are able to rest confidently in our reliance on His protection.

In contrast to our thoughts of God, which are so often aloof and suspicious, God’s thoughts toward us are warm and loving.  He actually delights in thinking about us, the object of His love.  He is not thinking about the details of our lives with contempt or disgust, but with the intent of blessing us and making our lives a trophy of His grace and love.  He tells us, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Jesus is described as a tender loving Shepherd feeding and caring for His people like the shepherd does his flock. The Scriptures tell us, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11).  Jesus knows the abilities and limits of each lamb in His flock.  He does not compel them harder or faster than they can travel, nor does He coldly ignore the hardships of those weakened in some way as a mother sheep carrying an unborn lamb.  He does not cruelly drive his sheep to exhaustion, but leads them according to their individual abilities. And if necessary, Jesus lifts them up and carries them in His arms close to his heart. The psalmist had this tender picture of Christ in his mind, gently leading him by the hand or taking him up and holding him in His arms, no matter how weak he was or how far he wandered. Furthermore, he knew that God is ever faithful, never faltering in His love and care so he is able to confidently say, “For this God is our God for ever and ever:  he will be our guide even unto death” (Psalm 48:14).

God knows how to lead each one of us through every danger and trial we face in this life.  We do not know where He is leading us, but we do know He is leading us where we will receive the best care and the best things in life.  He is the good Shepherd meticulously caring for His sheep, not the indifferent Shepherd inflicting harm upon His sheep in retribution for their foolishness. When we follow our Shepherd and trust Him to take us where we need to be, we discover He uses every circumstance in our lives to skillfully guide us.  Just as the Lord guided Israel in the wilderness, leading them and directing them in the way they needed to go, so He uses our lives’ circumstances to lead and guide us in the way we need to go.  Psalm 78:72 says, “So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.”

Our failures do not cause God to abandon us.

“And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Psalm 50:15).

The Lord urges His children to call upon Him in prayer when they are in trouble. Notice the Lord is not just telling us to pray so we are comforted, but pray so we are delivered!  Again in Psalm 34:19 we read, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” Deliverance may not come in the form that we imagined, but it will come to those who rely on the Lord Jesus Christ and cry out to Him.

Perhaps you have heard this story. A little boy watched with curiosity as a butterfly cocoon he found seemed to tremble with life. He decided to bring it home so he could continue watching it. To his amazement, a little hole in the cocoon began to appear as the insect inside struggled to wiggle his way to freedom. But then the cocoon stopped wiggling, and the little boy wondered if the butterfly inside was trapped and unable to make its way out. He decided to help it out, so he carefully pried open the cocoon so the butterfly could easily escape. To his disappointment, the butterfly did not fly away, but spun around on the table unable to fly.  His body was plump, but the wings were shriveled and unable to unfurl. The boy continued to watch, expecting to see the butterfly take off at any moment, but nothing happened. He did not understand his kindness was actually a curse to the butterfly because the struggle to free itself from the cocoon was a necessary part of its transformation. This difficult process is essential in order to force fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so it would be able to take its flight. By removing the need for the butterfly to struggle, the little boy actually crippled it and rendered it unable to fly at all.

Sometimes we are certain what we need is instant freedom from our struggles and adversities.  We look for ways to escape and plead for God to remove the restraints from us immediately.  Like the butterfly, we long to get on with our lives and fly away.  When God does not seem to be listening or responding to our pleas for freedom, we often stop seeking His help and give up in despair, or we imagine He is uncaring or unwilling to help us.  We do not stop to consider that God in His wisdom knows exactly what we need to become exactly what we want to be. The pressures we experience during times of adversity are able to nudge us in ways we need to go. A multitude of good things can come out of adversity—here are six.

1.

We learn to rely on God, pray, and see the wonderful deliverance of God.

4.

We are forced to evaluate and prioritize our lives, getting rid of unprofitable things and putting attention on things that really matter.

2.

We reach higher goals and accomplish things we never dreamed we could.

5.

We often change directions and pursue a path we might have never gone.

3.

We solve problems in ways we never imagined.

6.

We learn to know and live within our limitations and learn the joys of real contentment.

1.

God is good.

2.

What God is doing is good.

3.

God is for you, not against you.

You do not have problems—you have challenges!

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:  but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Expect things to go wrong!  They will.

“Many [are] the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all (Psalm 34:19).  “Where no oxen [are], the crib [is] clean: but much increase [is] by the strength of the ox”  (Proverbs 14:4).

God designated one day for rest.  Take it.

“Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed” (Exodus 23:12).

God gives His beloved sleep.  Look forward to it.

“[It is] vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: [for] so he giveth his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2).

Lighten the load by throwing excess baggage overboard! 

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

Little problems become big problems if you ignore them. 

“Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds” (Proverbs 27:23).

Cast your burdens and everyone else’s upon the Lord. 

“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

Forget tomorrow—focus on today. 

We are to pray for our daily, not monthly, bread. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:33-34).

It is not a sin to say NO! 

Man’s requirements are not necessarily God’s. “He hath shewed thee, ‘O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?’” (Micah 6:8)

God does not require us to do more than we are able.

“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7).

Laughter is a gift of God—a tranquilizer with no side effects. 

If you can laugh at it, you can live with it.
“I know that [there is] no good in them, but for [a man] to rejoice, and to do good in his life.  And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it [is] the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13). “A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).

Laziness is an overwhelming love for physical calm.

“[Yet] a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:  So shall thy poverty come [as] one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man (Proverbs 24:33-34).  He becometh poor that dealeth [with] a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich” (Proverbs 10:4). “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11).

Develop routines, predictability.  To the best of your ability, think ahead!

“The ants [are] a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer” (Proverbs 30:25). “He that gathereth in summer [is] a wise son: [but] he that sleepeth in harvest [is] a son that causeth shame” (Proverbs 10:5).

Thankfulness is a #1 stress buster! 

“Cultivate an attitude of thankfulness in every situation. “Stress” becomes manageable when we learn to come to God with all our cares and requests in a spirit of genuine thankfulness for His work in our lives and His involvement in those ways of escape He always provides. “Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful” (Colossians 3:15). “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Above all else, do not neglect your personal time with the Lord.

“Hast thou not known?  Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  There is no searching of his understanding.  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.  Even the youths shall faint and be weary; and the young men shall utterly fall:  But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31).

Paul first directed them to the source and basis of the words of encouragement he is about to give them—our Lord Jesus Christ himself and His love toward His children.  Paul used the personal words “our Lord and our Father” in such a way it calls the believers’ attention to the fact we are members of God’s family and as such, are very dear to His heart.  Everything God gives us springs from His heart of love, not because of anything commending ourselves to Him, but simply because it is His nature and will to love us.  Next he states as a fact that our God has already given us an everlasting consolation.

Our Father has said, “Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). Nothing we as His children do causes Him to love us less, and nothing we do or do not do makes Him love us more.  We may hinder God’s blessings, invite his discipline, or withdraw ourselves from a right fellowship with our Father, but none of these in any way diminish His love or His comforts that are ours forever.

Not only has our Lord and Father given us numerous consolations, He has given us good hope as well.  The hope Paul speaks of is not an unsure or vague “hope so” kind of hope.  This would not be good hope at all.  To “hope” in the biblical sense is to anticipate confidently the fulfillment of God’s promises.  It is to rest quietly in the assurance of God’s shepherding care and love, and it has as its basis the power and veracity of God’s own Word and unchanging character.  If such hope depended on our own goodness or righteousness in any way, we could not have unshakable assurance or peace.  We would always wonder if we “deserved it” or merited it in some way.  Paul clears that up by saying our hope is given by grace, or in other words, on the basis of God’s grace or unmerited favor toward us.

Finally, Paul made his specific request and asked the Lord to give even more comfort than they already had.  He did not just ask for more comfort, however, he specifically asked the Lord comfort the hearts of these believers.  Paul wanted them to sense God’s comfort in their minds and thoughts so they might be at rest within themselves.  Paul asked they become established, or well grounded, in their Christian walk of faith so their words and actions would be a reflection of their confidence in God’s care.