Suffering & Affliction, Trials & Testing

James 1:2-4 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials (peirasmos - here an external trial or test to both purify and strengthen) of various kinds,  for you know that the testing of your faith (dokimion - purging of impurities making us a dokimos - strong and pure metal) produces steadfastness (hupomone - the ability to turn trials into a demonstration of God's greatness and glory; to not just suffer but to emerge victorious, with the strength for even greater battles).  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect (teleios - fit for the task God gives us) and complete (holokleros - entirely fit for that service), lacking in nothing. 

1 Peter 4:12-14, 19 (ESV)

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.   

LEAN ON THE FATHER, SON & HOLY SPIRIT 

Learn God's promises in His Word, and ask the Holy Spirit to clearly teach you what you are to learn from this time -  Psalm 119:33 

Entirely surrender to His will - Matthew 26:39 

Ask for His help Isaiah - 38:14b 

Never think God your Father doesn’t love you or has abandoned you - Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 13:5b 

As your compassionate Father He knows your pain. 

Psalm 56:8 (NLT) 

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.

Octavius Winslow  Daily Walking With God

If for one moment we remove the eye from off the heart of God in the hour and depth of our trial, we are prepared to give heed to every dark suggestion of the adversary…the heart of God is still love, all love, and nothing but love, to His afflicted, bereaved, and sorrow-stricken child.

On Psalm 119:67 "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept Your word." 

The season of trial is not infrequently the sanctified season of revival. It is for our profit that He chastens, not for His pleasure; and that often to rouse us from our spiritual sleep, to recover us from our deep declension, and to impart new vigor, healthiness, and growth to His own life in the soul. 

James Hastings, Great Texts of the Bible, John I-XII, John 11:35 “The Lesson of Christ’s Tears”

I share all my pain with God, and He bears our griefs whether we see Him or are blind. Not over against me, holding back a hand which might help, but side by side, nay, "closer than breathing," within the inmost hiding-place of my suffering self, He suffers too and bears all pain with me. Therefore, if I will, His strength may be my strength, His love may succour me; new life and light may arise within me to be and to remain my own, and to turn even suffering into joy.

CONSIDER that God is good, and may use your time of trial for the deliverance of others.

Genesis 50:20 "God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."

Philippians 1:12 "Now I want you to know that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel."  

Martin Luther on Abraham’s summons to offer up Isaac, in Here I Stand

If he had known this was only a trial, he would not have been tried. Such is the nature of our trials, that while they last we cannot see to the end.

        Gérard  Vallée, Luther on Monastic Theology: Notes on Anfechtung and Compunction

        (Practical)...theology is not learned on a peaceful path, or through tranquil reflection: it is acquired per afflictions…

John Bunyan 

Heart's Ease in Heart Trouble

https://books.google.com/books?id=85MzkQHXCaAC&dq

God is present to sanctify affliction for good, and at length, in his good time, which is the best time, when he has perfected his own work in his people, he is present for their full deliverance. 

Seasonable Council, or Advice To Sufferers, 1684

https://www.monergism.com/seasonable-counsel-or-advice-sufferers-ebook 

Do not even such things as are most bitter to the flesh, tend to awaken Christians to faith and prayer, to a sight of the emptiness of this world, and the fadingness of the best it yield? Doth not God by these things (ofttimes) call our sins to remembrance, and provoke us to amendment of life? How then can we be offended at things by which we reap so much good?

Samuel Rutherford

You can't sneak quietly into heaven without a cross. Crosses form us into His image. They cut away the pieces of our corruption. Lord cut, carve, wound; do anything to perfect your image in us and make us fit for glory.

O what I owe to the hammer, the file and the furnace! The hammer molds us, the file sharpens us, and the fire tempers us. (Proverbs 17:3)

        In a letter to Alexander Henderson from Aberdeen, March 9, 1637

          https://books.google.com/books?id=flIOK0FGq0AC&pg=PA192&lpg

God hath called you to Christ’s side and the wind is now in Christ’s face in this land; and seeing ye are with Him, ye cannot expect the leeside or the sunny side of the brae (steep hill).

Thomas Watson

What if we have more of the rough file, if we have less rust! Afflictions carry away nothing but the dross of sin.

        The Lord's Prayer

God's children must see the world's emptiness to be acquainted with Christ's fullness. 

Thomas Brooks  The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

A soul at first conversion is but rough-cast; but God by afflictions doth square and fit and fashion it for that glory above, which shows they flow from precious love. God's house of correction is a school of instruction.

If by outward afflictions thy soul be brought more under the inward teachings of God, doubtless they afflictions are in love.

If God, by the affliction that is upon thee, shall teach thee how to loathe sin more, how to trample upon the world more, and how to walk with God more, thy afflictions are in love. 

If God shall teach thee by afflictions how to die to sin more, and how to die to they self-interest more, thy afflictions are in love.

If God shall teach thee by afflictions how to live to Christ more, how to lift up Christ more, and how to long for Christ more, thy afflictions are in love.

If God shall teach thee by afflictions to get assurance of a better life, and to be still in a gracious readiness and preparedness for the day of thy death, they afflictions are in love.

If God shall teach thee by afflictions how to mind heaven more, and how to fit for heaven more, they afflictions are in love.

If God by afflictions shall teach thy proud heart how to lie more low, and thy hard heart how to grow more humble, and they censorious heart how to grow more charitable, and thy carnal heart how to grow more spiritual, and thy forward heart how to grow more quiet, thy afflictions are in love.

Ezekiel Culverwell  Epistle to the Christian Reader

(Some of)…God’s children carry the fire of zeal in a flinty heart, which, unless it be hammered, will not yield a spark to warm and cheer their benumbed and frozen affections towards the worship and service of God, and the hearty embracing of his truth...

William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour

(Trials) to faith, are like fire to gold. The fire doth not only discover which is true gold, but makes the true gold more pure; it comes out, may be, less in bulk and weight, because severed from that soil and dross which embased it, but more in value and worth. 

"Lord, cut and hew me how thou wilt, that at last I may be polished and framed according to the (pat­tern) which love hath drawn in thy heart for me."

T. De Witt Talmage Daily Thoughts, “God’s Way Is Not Man’s Way”, 1875

It seems as if a man must be cut and hit and pounded just in proportion as he is useful.

Elisabeth Elliot

Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering... The love of God did not protect His own Son and He will not necessarily protect us - not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process.

Nathaniel Vincent  A Covert from the Storm, or the Fearful Encouraged in Times of Suffering

http://www.puritanpublications.com/store/products/a-covert-from-the-storm-or-the-fearful-encouraged-in-times-of-suffering-by-nathaniel-vincent-1639-1697/  

Timothy Cruso  "The duty and blessing of a tender conscience plainly stated, and earnestly recommended to all that regard acceptance with God, and the prosperity of their souls"

(God) throws us into a hotter or cooler furnace, according as we have more or less need of melting.

Hugh Baird Beaten Oil, on Isaiah 48:10b "I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." 

The furnace proves the Christian’s faith, hope, and patience. The Christian needs his faith strengthened, and his hope brightened; and he prays for this. May not God answer his prayer by casting him into the furnace, where only such blessed results can be attained?

A.B. Simpson on Isaiah 48:10b

Fire of God, thy work begin,

Burn up the dross of self and sin;

Burn off my fetters, set me free,

And through the furnace walk with me. 

God knows the way He is taking, and there is infinite tenderness in the oversight He gives. He is watching the furnace you are in; He will not allow the heat to become too intense. He wants it great enough to purify and then it will be withdrawn. He knows our frame. 

A desperate desire to change some difficult circumstance may take our eyes off God and His glory. Some suffering Christians have been so anxious to get well and have spent so much time in trying to claim healing, that they have lost their spiritual blessing. God sometimes has to teach such persons that there must be a willingness to be sick before they are yielded enough to receive His blessing.

John Flavel  Preparations For Sufferings, or, The Best Work in the Worst Times, 1681

https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/flavel/Preparations%20for%20Sufferings%20-%20John%20Flavel.pdf 

The choicest spirits have been exercised with the sharpest sufferings, and those that now shine as stars in heaven, have been trod under foot as dung on the earth. What grievous sufferings God has called his dearest people to! If God is inclined to mercy, why has he often hedged in his own people by his providence in a suffering path?

1. By this, the most-wise God will illustrate the glory of his own name. In grievous sufferings he manifests the glory of his power in their support, escape and deliverance.

2. Through sufferings, he advances their happiness. Corruptions are mortified, and sincerity proved to the joy and satisfaction of their own hearts. Many doubts and fears are removed and answered.

3. Sufferings are ordained to free the church of hypocrites. Affliction is a furnace to separate the dross from pure gold. Multitudes of hypocrites are generated by the church's prosperity.

4. Sufferings endear the family of God to each other. Times of suffering are times of reconciliation and greater endearments.

5. By suffering we are awakened to our duties and taught to pray more frequently and fervently. Ah, what drowsiness and formality creep in at times of prosperity!

Richard Sibbes

        Divine Meditations

Whatsoever is good for God's children they shall have it; for all is theirs to help them towards heaven; therefore if poverty be good they shall have it; if disgrace or crosses be good they shall have them; for all is ours to promote our greatest prosperity.

        The Soul's Conflict With Itself

Square will lie fast upon square, but our hearts are so full of unevenness, that God hath much ado to square our hearts fit for him.

        Discouragement’s Recovery

The reason why God’s children fail in time of trouble is because they do not trust God for new supplies of grace. We cannot perform new duties, and undergo new sufferings, with old graces.

Thomas Case A Treatise on Afflictions

In the Word we hear of God, but in affliction we see him. Affliction is a furnace to try the faith of God's people and to see God's faithfulness in his promises. 

It is a sad thing to have affliction, but not the blessing of affliction; to feel the wood of the cross, but not the good of the cross. 

God speaks when we are most apt to hear. Prosperity is the nurse of atheism. In our peace and tranquility, we pray carelessly by fits and starts, and let every trifle come before prayer. In our affliction, God keeps us upon our knees.

God's people become aware of his attributes in their sufferings: his holiness, justice, faithfulness, mercy, and all-sufficiency. 

John Brown  The Christian’s Great Enemy in Expository Discourse on 1 Peter

The Christian who is enabled to triumph over temptation, is stronger than if he had never been tempted.

J.C. Ryle

It is profitable to understand that serving Christ never exempted anyone from the evils that the flesh inherits, nor will it exempt anyone from them. If you are a believer, you must know that while you are in the body you will have your share of sickness and pains, of sufferings and tears, of losses and crosses, of deaths and sorrows, of goodbyes and separations and of displeasure and displeasure. Christ never promised that you make it to heaven without it.

He will be responsible that everyone who comes to him will have all things related to life and holiness, but he never took responsibility to give him prosperity and wealth, nor good health, nor to exempt his family from death and affliction.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones "Meeting Trials and Tribulations"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=6XiwHYzgkBk 

Spiritual Depression - Martyn Lloyd-Jones | Trials - YouTube  

"Life Conditions for Every Christian"

http://www.thetransformedsoul.com/about-the-book/chapters/chapter-1

 1. Conditions are always changing therefore I must obviously not be dependent upon conditions.

2. What matters supremely and vitally is my soul and my relationship to God-that IS the first thing.

3. God is concerned about me as my Father, and nothing happens to me apart from God.

4. God's will and God's ways are a great mystery, but I know that whatever He wills and permits is of necessity for good.

5. Every situation in life IS the unfolding of some manifestation of God's love and goodness. Therefore, my business is to look for this peculiar manifestation of God's goodness and kindness and to be prepared for surprises and blessings because 'His ways are not my ways, neither His thoughts my thoughts'.

6. I must regard circumstances and conditions, not in and of themselves therefore, but as a part of God's dealings with me in the work of perfecting my soul and bringing me to final perfection.

7. Whatever my conditions may be at this present moment they are only temporary, they are only passing, and they can never rob me of the joy and the glory that ultimately await me with Christ.

C.H. Spurgeon

The Treasure Of David on Psalm 10

If we were carried in the arms of God over every stream, where would be the trial, and where the experience, which trouble is meant to teach us? (Romans5:3-4 "Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."

Sermons from the Book of Job

Vol. 1

https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/spurgeon/SermonFrom%20Job1.pdf

Vol. 2

https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/spurgeon/SermonFromJob2.pdf

Vol. 3

https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/spurgeon/SermonfromJob3.pdf  

John Newton

Memoirs  

Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end.

(Evil is under God’s providence and restraining hand.

God has a purpose in allowing evil.

God made a way for victory over evil through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross.

We are not however freed from the presence, power, and consequences of evil in this life.

One day, there will be no evil.)

“The Present and Future Rest of True Believers” on Matthew 11:28

https://www.monergism.com/present-and-future-rest-true-believers-matthew-1128

"God will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever!"

John Owen  Temptation and Sin

God’s instrument of trial digs deep into the depths and innermost parts of the soul. It allows man to see clearly what is truly in him, and what type of metal he is made of. 

(God does not send trials and testing to show HIM what we are made of, but to show ourselves.)

Thomas Brooks  The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ

Lord, keep down my sins, and keep up my heart to honour you in all my troubles. Though my burdens are doubled and troubles multiplied, help me to honour you by trusting, waiting and submitting to you, and I shall sing my cares away and say, "It is enough." 

Octavius Winslow Daily Walking With God 

On Psalm 86:7 “In the day of my trouble I will call upon you: for you will answer me.”

The influence of sanctified affliction upon the inner life is, perhaps, the most evident and powerful in the revival of the spirit of prayer...the highest, holiest, and sweetest privilege prepared for the Christian.

On Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Thank the Lord for every errand that takes you to the throne of grace. Whatever it is that sends you to prayer, count it one of your choice blessings. It may be a heavy cross, a painful trial, a pressing need; it may be a broken cistern, a cold look, an unkind expression; yet, if it leads you to prayer, regard it as a mercy sent from God to your soul.

On Hebrews 12:1 "No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous." 

There is equal danger of overrating our afflictions. When they are allowed too deeply to absorb us in grief; when they unfit us for duty; keep us from walking in the path God has marked out for us; hold us back from prayer and from the means of grace; when they lead us to think harshly and speak severely of God; then we overrate God's chastisements, and prevent the good they were so kindly sent to convey. 

F.B. Meyer

The Father draws near, saying, "I am with you in this dark valley, and am able to make you stand; I would not have brought you here had I not counted the cost. I am able to be a very present help in this time of trouble. I have carried others through this ordeal, and I can carry you; only keep near my side; look away from the tempter to my face; cease to trust yourself and depend absolutely upon Me, and I, who brought you to this testing-place, will lead you out. Be of good cheer! See, there awaits you the crown which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to each soldier who has stood true to Him in the hour of trial, and you could not get that if you did not bear this. It is because I want you to win that I am giving you the chance of this hard fight." 

Leslie D. Weatherhead

O God, enrich our lives, we beseech Thee, with those experiences which seem most hard to bear. Take from us all resentment and bitterness. Teach us to forgive others lest we shut ourselves from Thy forgiveness. Help us to bring happiness and peace to others, even when our own hearts are in turmoil. Save us from spreading grief and sorrow, depression and despair. 

May we never blunt the truth about ourselves in order to excuse ourselves, or hide our motives from our scrutiny in a vain attempt to think more highly of ourselves than the truth warrants. 

Show us that it is more enriching to show courage than to receive sympathy, even when no-one suspects that there is anything to be courageous about. Show us that silent suffering, without bitterness or self-pity, can make us strong. From advertising our self-martyrdoms, from blazing abroad our little sacrifices, from reciting our woes to others, O Lord, deliver us. From yielding to melancholy moods that depress others; from the sullenness of temper that drives the sunshine from other faces; from the refusal to do battle with gloom and by that refusal to make life harder for others, O Lord, deliver us.

Forgive us for all our failures, and help us to start again each day as Thy loving sons and daughters, living in obedience and in trust. 

https://hymnary.org/text/as_oft_with_worn_and_weary_feet 

As oft, with worn and weary feet,

We tread earth's rugged valley o'er,

The thought, how comforting and sweet:

Christ trod this very path before!

Our wants and weaknesses He knows,

From life's first dawning to its close.

Does sickness, feebleness or pain

Or sorrow in our path appear?

The recollection will remain,

More deeply did He suffer here:

His life, how truly sad and brief,

Filled up with suffering and with grief.

If Satan tempt our hearts to stray

And whisper evil things within,

So did he, in the desert way,

Assail our Lord with thoughts of sin,

When worn and in a feeble hour

The tempter came with all his power.

Just such as I, this earth He trod,

With every human ill but sin;

And though indeed the very God,

As I am now so He has been.

My God, my Savior, look on me,

With pity, love and sympathy.