Job 5:7 …man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. KJV — (As sure as the wild birds fly, Aramaic; and even so the vulture’s young seek the high places, Septuagint.)
As sure as the laws of nature; as birds of prey scavenge from on high or fire flickers upward, so men will see trouble.
Psalm 119:67-75 teaches, ” Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” …”It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”… “I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.”
It seems that trouble should not surprise us, but must come. A word from Jeremiah:
” …the Lord will not reject for ever.” ” But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.”
“For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”Lamentations 3:31-33
Lamentations 3:36 “To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approves not.” We must see that God takes no pleasure in men trampled.
Then why?
Man is prone to identity irregularities. Idol-making of emulated fellows leads many to justify their fallen propensities. The Heros worshiped are those who take on the identity of their sin or weakness and exalt it as good and normal. Birds of a feather flock together! Others panic. It is the infectious nature of evil that snares a man or woman. — Man already carries a deceivable nature because of the fall of Adam and Eve. So, evil causes a person to cave — instead of fighting against hurtful things.
Because of our tainted makeup, a man may relish the fall or failure of a friend. Why? Because it puts him at ease to identify with the weak, animal nature of others. Now, a person can excuse himself when he also fails, to embrace the same weakness without shame.
On the other hand, a believer suffers so as to identify with his weakened fellow humans. In our case it is not to enjoy their failures, but to show them Christ — A compassionate Savior — To show them a victorious side.
Mrs. Cowman posted a short poem:
They took them all away–my toys–Not one was left; They set me here, shorn, stripped of humblest joys. anguished, bereft.
I wondered why. The years have flown; Unto my hand cling weaker, sadder ones who walk alone– I understand. –Anon
A thought on suffering:
“Have you ever gone to a movie or watched a television show where someone breaks up with the love of their life, and then they go off and get really drunk for two or three days in a row, come out of it, and then they move on? No, that’s not what happens. The drunken bender doesn’t solve a thing. The suffering returns. All they have done is suppress it.”
The second option we can take when dealing with suffering is that we can feel (own), our pain. It is challenging to us. Going back to the example of losing a loved one, we do suffer when we feel that loss. It can be very sad; it can be tragic; there can be a lot of tears. However, what happens is that feeling or owning the pain helps us get better. Our suffering heals, and then we move on.
“Then the third option occurs. We can grow from our feelings of suffering. We can learn from our experience, our suffering, and adapt that experience into our lives because the pain is healed. We have then put ourselves in a position to use these experiences of suffering as learning tools for making good choices throughout the rest of our lives. from psychology today
Some things we learned in suffering: “He is an ever present help in times of trouble.”
Isaiah 63:9, “In all of our afflictions, He is afflicted.”
Psalm 41:3 “The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing.”
Job 34:28 “and he hears the cry of the afflicted.”
Psalm 22:24 “For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted”
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