LEARNING THE HARD WAY IS OFTEN THE ONLY WAY

• The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. (Psalms 34:18-19 )

Why do the righteous have many afflictions? There are many reasons for this. Here is one: We need them to grow into Christ-likeness. Scripture tells us that trials eventually bear the fruit of righteousness:

• "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives."...[God] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:5-6, 10-11)

Weeds do not require cultivation. They spread naturally. In contrast, grapes and broccoli require a lot of oversight. We are a vineyard. In order to bloom, we require very special care.

Hebrews adds that this care is inevitably painful. To bear, the grape vines must be pruned back. While some trees do not require pruning, others will kill themselves without pruning. By growing its branches indiscriminately, they can suffocate themselves and even cause themselves diseases by rubbing against each other.

When God allows us to go our own way, we inevitably corrupt ourselves by following our inclinations:

• Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! (Romans 1:24-25)

This means that we should regard God’s painful discipline as blessing and a token of His love.

Trials also teach us of our inadequacy and our Lord’s complete adequacy. He does this by rescuing us from threats after we have experienced our helplessness. However, in order to learn these painful lessons, we need overwhelming hardships and His deliverance from them. Otherwise, we will never learn to reject self-trust in favor of God-trust and will continue to go our own way to our destruction.

The Psalms tell us that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted. Why? The car mechanic only responds to those who call upon him. Well, who calls upon him? Only those with broken cars.

Let’s thank God that we are cars in need of His repair.