The Benefit of Affliction

Psalm 119:71 

“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”

I often talk about cycling and how the best way to describe it is managing your pain. You often go into what is called “the hurt locker.” It is the place where the pain you are experiencing blocks all other feelings and emotions, and all you experience is discomfort and pain. It is when you visit the hurt locker that you get stronger, they say. The more fit you get, the deeper the hurt locker becomes. Why would you do this, you might say, because the end result is getting more fit and stronger. Pain becomes a companion to growth and fitness, not something you avoid like you used to do.

David comments on affliction and how it was good for him because it made him focus on the decrees of the Lord. Many of us avoid affliction and pain at all costs. Naturally, we move toward comfort and ease rather than deal with discomfort and negativity.

The affliction you are having right now might just be what the Lord has ordered up for you. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert fasting, and after those 40 days, Satan was allowed to tempt Him. Peter denied Christ three times before He was crucified. Paul writes about how he was afflicted many times while spreading the gospel. The point is that the affliction we are experiencing right now should make us lean into the gospel and Christ, not push them away.

Just like cycling, the pain is there to let you know you are getting more fit. The negative issues you may be dealing with may be served up straight from the Lord to get you to a place where your faith will grow and become more fit for Christ. Stop dreading the affliction and realize your faith in Christ only gets stronger when you lean into Him in the middle of it. Psalm 23:4 says, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” We all need to get to the place where we can say that it was good for me to be afflicted because it made me learn the decrees of the Lord.

Prayer: Father, your word says we are more than overcomers through Christ who strengthens us. Help us understand that the battles we face now are making us stronger in you and growing our faith. Help us realize that you are with us no matter where we are. Get us to the place where we can say it was good to be afflicted. In Jesus’ name, amen.