It is the privilege of every
Christian to know that all of his affairs are in God's loving
hands and that nothing shall be done which will not work for
his spiritual and eternal good. How are we to obtain a sweet
submission to God's afflictive providences? 1. The first thing to be sought
by you is a deep sense of your own sinfulness. I will bear the
indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. Micah
chapter 7 verse 9. We become reconciled to whatever
affliction God may send, seeing that any chastisement in this
world must be less than our iniquities have deserved. However heavy
your trial may be, you will say, Why should any living man complain
when punished for his sins? Lamentations chapter 3 verse
39. Anything short of the miseries
of hell, especially if it tends to avert those miseries, will
be accounted rather a mercy to be thankful for than a judgment
to be deplored. O that in the prospect of our
heaviest calamities we might have such a view of our ill desert,
as should dispose us humbly to commit ourselves into God's hands,
and cordially to welcome every trial which His all-wise providence
may appoint for us. Under every affliction, our acquiescence
should be like that of Eli, it is the Lord, may he do what seems
good to him. 2 The next thing is to realize
the universal agency of divine providence, so as to see that
affliction does not come forth from the dust, neither does trouble
spring forth out of the ground. Job chapter 5 verse 6. We must
be convinced that everything, even to the falling of a sparrow
or of a hair from our head, is ordered by the Lord. Matthew
chapter 10 verses 29 to 30. Our nature may indeed recoil
from suffering, and we may deplore it, even as our Lord Himself
did when He desired that the cup of suffering which had been
put into His hands might pass from Him. But this you will do
with submission, saying, Not my will, but may your will be
done. And when you see what the Lord's
will is, you will chide your reluctant heart, saying, The
cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? John
chapter 18 verse 11. 3. Finally, look to the outcome
of your trials. You have heard of Job's perseverance
and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full
of compassion and mercy. James chapter 5 verse 11 If God's furnace is to purge
away your dross, then you will not greatly regret that He puts
you into it. You will expect His presence
with you in your troubles, for your comfort and support, Malachi
3.3, Daniel 3.25, and a rich compensation for them in the
world to come. 2 Timothy 2.12, Revelation 7.14-15. Get these thoughts wrought into
your hearts, and you will bear the heaviest calamities with
resignation. God disciplines us for our good,
that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant
at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces
a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been
trained by it. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 10
to 11.