Sometimes, our Lord promises that we will have to suffer (2
Corinthians 4:7-11), and sometimes He promises great blessings:
·
And my God will supply every need of yours
according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 ESV)
Well, which is it? What are we to expect from our Lord? Both! They go together. He first humbles
us with suffering so that He can then exalt us with His blessings and
deliverance:
·
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and
whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)
He empties us of our pride and sense of entitlement by
humbling us through suffering so that when He blesses us, we will not be
inclined to think that we are more entitled than others:
·
You [God] brought us into the net; you laid a
crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through
fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. (Psalm
66:11-12)
Suffering precedes abundance. We want to be in a place of abundance,
but if He doesn’t first empty our cup so that we can receive it, it will cause
pride. Paul had demonstrated how affliction precedes glorification as we die to
self-trust and increasingly awake to God-trust:
·
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self
is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light
momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that
are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are
unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
Paul learned had to learn to depend upon God by despairing of
any hope in his own sufficiency from personal experience (2 Corinthians 1:8-9;
3:5). However, he needed repeated doses of frightful, painful, and humbling experiences
(chapter 11). However, even his many beatings and rejections were not enough to
humble Paul. God had given him so much knowledge that, if He didn’t afflict
Paul further, it would have gone to his head:
·
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of
the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh,
a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three
times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said
to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am
content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For
when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
I’m sure that Paul’s “weaknesses, insults, hardships,
persecutions, and calamities” remained highly painful. They had to be (Hebrews
12:11). Without the pain, there can be no gain, no growth in depending on
Jesus. However, Paul’s travails brought fruit:
·
…for I have learned in whatever situation I am
to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any
and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and need. (Philippians 4:11-12)
“The secret of facing plenty?” What’s the problem with
facing plenty? Doesn’t our Lord want to give us everything? Yes, but even good things
can be corrupting if we haven’t learned how to receive them. Our cup must first
be emptied before it can be filled. Emptied of what? Self-sufficiency, self-centeredness,
and self-righteousness! But how? In order to experience God’s deliverance, we
first have to be in a position where we have no other choice but to cry out for
it. Often, this means waiting.
CONCLUSION: Psalm 34:18-19 “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.”
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