Jacob Robertson

What have I done to deserve this? Why God?

Have you ever asked yourself these questions? I dare say every true follower of Christ has asked these questions and more during significant times of sorrow and despair. You know the moments. Let us be real. The times when you feel deserted, confused, filled with turmoil, depression, and loneliness. These feelings often sit so deep inside our soul we have difficulty articulating our reality. It’s here that we cry out to God. Research shows that we cry when we are hurt, sad, or angry because our body knows no other way to release the emotional distress. Many are God’s saints whose knees are bruised the hours of forlorn prayer before Him. Some may even say, “Allow my life to be evidence that affliction befalls both the saint and the degenerate” (John 16:33). Let us remember this broken world shows no partiality in who it shares its troubles with. We are broken people in a broken world.

But in God’s divine sovereignty and grace, He uses the brokenness of this world to sanctify, refine, and mold the Christian. Charles Spurgeon once wrote “The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.”

So, what are we to do in these times of affliction?

Pray. Draw closer to God. Continue in faithfulness.

Never allow affliction to pull you away from God, but draw you closer. Don’t run aimlessly in the desert searching for water. Run to the Fountain who provides, and then provides more. As you pray asking God to use these afflictions to refine your heart, remember the words of the Apostle Paul, “…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:4-5 ESV). The bitterness of affliction is indeed bitter, but the medicine of our Lord is oh, so great!