Surviving Afflictions

I have immersed myself in the theology and some biographical accounts of those who have been afflicted much in their service for Christ. It seems to me those afflictions can be put into four different categories. Some are afflicted through persecution or opposition. Others endure afflictions that relate to health issues. Some are afflicted with the loss of a spouse or child. There are some who are afflicted financially.

What I am discovering is that afflictions are the normal lot in life for all of us. Often when we suffer one of the first things we ask is, "Why me? Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this affliction?" I am convinced that at some point in life everybody is afflicted in one way or another. I am also convinced that faulty preaching about how God always wants to bless and prosper us has thrown people for a loop when they discover they have cancer, when the loved one takes their own life, when the job comes to an end as well as the finances, and when lives are beaten and savagely struck down all for remaining faithful to Christ.

In those moments you had better know God and your Bible or your life will seem like a person walking through a carnival of mirrors where everything seems distorted. Nothing in those moments makes sense and if you do not have a firm trust in God and His word it will be difficult to survive with your faith in tact. There are people everywhere who have gone through the bitter valley of affliction and come out on the other side angry, disillusioned, and very bitter. God wills that we come through these experiences with joy in Him and still trusting Him even when we do not understand. [Phil 4:4] [James 1:2-4] [Ps 16:11]

John Paton and Charles Simeon suffered much opposition in their ministries. John Paton served as a missionary among savages who once ate two previous missionaries who landed onto their island. They tried to kill Paton and his family too. One night Paton spent the whole night hiding up in a tree while the islanders sought to kill him. Charles Simeon suffered opposition from parishioners who did not want him as their pastor. For twelve years the pew holders kept the doors of their pews locked so no one could sit on them if they came to hear Simeon preach. Those who came to services were forced to stand or sit on the floor for twelve long years, yet Simeon stayed in that one church for fifty-four years.

I doubt any of you reading this have faced opposition like that in your life or ministry. Both men endured the affliction and did so with a reliance on God. Both men inspire me to press on through my afflictions. When someone asked Simeon, at seventy one years of age, how he had overcome the afflictions of his life and ministry Simeon responded with these sobering words, "My dear brother, we must not mind a little suffering for Christ's sake."

David Cho knows about financial suffering. He started a church in an abandoned U.S. military army tent in South Korea. He lived in that tent gutting out the brutally cold temperatures under a thin blanket. He commented in his autobiography, Dr. David Yonggi Cho: Ministering Hope for Fifty Years,  how the offerings were less than $2.00 a week in U.S. currency. He ate the same meal three times a day of corn porridge and radishes as a side dish. He survived those early afflictions to now serve as the pastor of the world's largest church in South Korea.

David Brainerd knew about the affliction of physical suffering. He suffered from tuberculosis and died at the age of twenty nine after much suffering. He still labored as a missionary to Native Americans. It is by the providence of God we even know about David Brainerd. He spent the last weeks of his life in the home of Jonathan Edwards. After Brainerd died Edwards read his diary and worked to edit it and publish it for others to read. God has used David Brainerd to inspire many others who are enduring physical suffering as they serve God.

Both Adoniram Judson and Hudson Taylor knew the affliction of losing wives and children in their missionary labors. Both had to bury the ones they loved in foreign soil and yet they battled and continued to trust God to get them through each day. Sarah Edwards had to deal with the premature death of a her husband Jonathan Edwards. Her words in a letter about that loss stir me. "What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God, and there I am, and love to be."

So there we have it. Some choice servants of God have been mentioned above and all had to do work through and cope with afflictions. Should you and I expect any different? I love what Sarah Edwards communicated when she wrote her daughter, "But my God lives; and he has my heart." She referred to God as holy and good even in her grief.

Afflictions are part of the human experience. What will you do with that fact? Will you give up, give in, and shipwreck your faith? Will you dig deep for God's comfort and "kiss the rod and lay your hand on your mouth"? Others were afflicted and they survived. They found strength in God to carry on and I believe we can too if we walk the familiar paths those saints did in prayer and scripture reflection. Press on brothers and sisters. Press on in the strength and comfort of our Lord.