"I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me" (Psalm 119:75).

One of the most perplexing aspects of the Christian life is trying to understand God's purpose when defeat or affliction comes into our lives, thereby hindering or even halting our ministry and testimony for Him. Many have been the servants of God who were sincerely working for Christ, seeking to obey His will and His word as best they understood them, but then suddenly were laid aside by sickness, or had their ministries stopped by the enemies of God (sometimes even by fellow Christians), or for some other reason, and could not discern why God allowed it.

What then? When affliction comes, we must simply trust God, knowing that whatever He does is right and that our affliction is invested with His faithfulness. He is our Creator and, through Christ, has also become our heavenly Father: "Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" (Hebrews 12:9). He knows what we don't know, therefore we can "know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).

This verse (Romans 8:28) is one of the most familiar and most wonderful promises in the Bible, but it is one of the most difficult to believe in time of affliction or loss. Nevertheless, it is God's promise, and "all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us" (II Corinthians 1:20).

God knows the end from the beginning, and in that wonderful day when Christ returns, "then shall I know even as also I am known" (I Corinthians 13:12). Until then, we must simply trust Him. HMM