“How can I bless God when He has ordained misery for my life?”
Thank God He hasn’t made our sufferings worse! We are to bless God that our trials, afflictions and sufferings are not worse with us. “He has every right to put more gall into our cup” (see Ezra 9:14).
1. We are to bless God because He actually chose us and now He corrects us, rather than condemn us with the world and then cast us into the Hell that we all deserve (1 Corinthians 11:32).
2. We are to bless God that He has made affliction a means to prevent sin—that He has given us the strength, resolve and courage to work through our trials and periods of testing. Psalm 112:4 says that He gives us all the support we need in our trouble.
3. Christ does not stand afar off, in the safety and comfort of Heaven from where he orders our ordeals. Instead, he is in the trenches along with us and takes our yoke upon Himself too – side by side – pulling us and encouraging us to continue. More than this, he even lines our yoke with inward peace and makes it soft and pleasant. He always bears the brunt of our affliction, since He’s designed it for our improvement.
4. We become His own when He sets His seal of affliction upon us.
5. We are to thank God that Christ has willingly taken the sting out of our affliction, that there is a hope of better things laid up for us in heaven (see Colossians 1:5).
6. When we can, try to show Him holy gratitude and triumph in the affliction, because, believe it or not, we are better men and woman by affliction, and it also shows that the Spirit of God and His glory rests upon us (1 Peter 4:14.)
7. To bless God, when He is blessing us with wealth, health and prosperity, is no wonder, but to bless God when He is correcting us—to bless Him from inside a prison, to give thanks to Him from a hospital bed, not only to kiss the rod but to bless the hand which holds it—this speaks very highly of His grace which softens our sufferings. King David said in Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your law.” Ezekiel 16:42 says, “And so will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry.”
8. We tend to forget that we deserve His full wrath. Note that God did not forgive satan and 1/3 of His angelic creation when they rebelled against Him; He set them aside for eternal separation to experience His full wrath in Hell forever – there will be no sacrifice for them – they are permanently doomed. We deserve this too when we sinned against Him in the garden, but for man, He elected to give us a second chance, purely because He wanted to!
9. If our sins brings us low, let’s work to keep them low. Pray that the Lord give us a perfect hatred for our sin and pursue it with a holy malice, because if sin can bring us back to the dust from where we came, it can further bring us lower into the abyss of Hell. Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
Again, it is always important to remind each other that God does not PUNISH us, since the punishment was paid once and for all by His one and only Son, Christ Jesus, who alone is worthy and capable of taking our place on that cross. However, God will CHASTEN us, that is, like a good Dad, He will discipline us in ways that will help us reach our potential as the man and woman he intended for Adam and Eve. Where they failed, He is engaged to help us succeed as His image bearers.