Learn Peace through Affliction

4/3/25 

The Lord allows affliction and removes our peace so that we might find hope and peace in Him, alone.  

He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace...So, I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” I remember my affliction and my wandering…and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for Him.” Lamentations 3:16-25. 

Continuing on with the subject of how affliction and suffering can bring peace, God took away my strength, so He could be my strength.  For example, He took my away my hearing, so He could be my hearing and perform a miracle! I Choose to Believe, The Miracle of the Deaf Ear. Who has believed the Lord would do such a thing? 

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. Philippians 1:12.

Indeed, the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  John 16:32-33.

“Jesus is saying, “You’re all going to fail (in one way or another), and I’m telling you this so that in Me you may have peace.” I don’t get it, Lord. How is that kind of pronouncement supposed to give anybody peace?

Jesus wanted them to learn that their peace will not be based upon their ability to stand but upon their relationship to Him. For them to truly embrace this peace, they would have to first of all collapse. And be totally emptied of self-reliance…

Yes, God delivers us from all affliction, but sometimes He delays His provision in order to try us by fire. The delay itself is a fire ordained by God to produce a deep work in our hearts. God has a design for our deliverance, but He also has a purpose for the fiery delay.

Make no mistake, delayed answers are a fire. When you’re in crisis and have His promise of deliverance, but there’s no change in sight, the heat can become very hot indeed! His purpose in the delay is to strengthen our faith, kindle our love to new depths of passion and maturity, and impart the heart and character of Christ to us — all in order to make us a more useful vessel.” Sorge, Bob. Fire of Delayed Answers.

Now, affliction is not just physical.  But it can be anything that alters your life to the point where nothing else matters. This is the place of the fire; of purifying fire from God to melt away and mold us into a new image and a renewed mind. Entering Peace through Affliction.

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.  Isaiah 48:10.