“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept your word. … It is good for me that I have been afflicted so that I might learn your statutes.” Psalm 119:67,71 (Read Psalm 119:65-72)

Have you ever considered that your troubles may be good for you? If you are sick, if you are suffering financial hardship, if your life has fallen apart, could this be for your good? The psalmist tells us of the benefits of affliction: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept your word. … It is good for me that I have been afflicted so that I might learn your statutes.”

Sometimes we need to be afflicted with sickness, disease or trouble before we will wake up and see that we have been going the wrong way in our lives. Sometimes we need to feel the consequences of our own sin and indiscretion before we come to our senses and turn back to the LORD God and His ways.

But not all affliction and suffering are the direct result of some particular sin in our lives. Yet God still deals with us for our good. Though our outward body may be withering away from disease; yet, through this affliction, we may be drawn deeper into God’s Word and be growing stronger in the inner man (that new spiritual life created in us by the Holy Spirit through the promises of God’s Word). We may lose everything we have in this world and yet gain and possess, through faith in Jesus Christ, forgiveness for all our sins and the everlasting riches of heaven.

O almighty and everlasting God, thank You for the afflictions in my life, for bringing me to see the error of my ways and the goodness of You and of Your Word, for drawing me into the Scriptures and granting me forgiveness for all my sins and the everlasting joys of heaven through faith in Jesus Christ and His innocent sufferings and death in my stead. In His name, I pray. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the Revised Common Version.]