There is saying that some people only learn things the hard way.  Sometimes God needs to bring affliction into our lives in order that we can learn his ways.

Psalms 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

Learning Things the Hard Way

There is saying that some people only learn things the hard way.  Sometimes God needs to bring affliction into our lives in order that we can learn his ways.  The problem is most people don’t look at that as good but rather as bad.  When you see affliction that God brings as bad that is purely a reaction of the flesh.  The godly man will instantly recognize God’s hand in an affliction and begin to look for the good that will be wrought in his life.  After going through it enough, you will begin to almost enjoy the affliction as you know that the end of it will be you drawing closer to God.  I would almost call it affliction learning.  Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for our good, including affliction.  The only way you learn the love of God is to be despised and rejected of men as our Lord was and then love them back like He did.  God teaches you the love of God in this manner.  Often we just ask God to “give” us love for others.  Sometimes we just need to learn it.  Yes the Lord needs to enable you through His spirit but some of it is learned through affliction.

Affliction and the Learning Curve

Sometimes we say there is a “learning curve” when learning some new skill like playing soccer.  At first it is often very slow.  It seems like you are going no where.  But eventually you get the basics down and your learning quickly accelerates.  That is the way of affliction learning.  God brings affliction in our life and instead of trying to let God teach us what He wants to through the affliction, instead we fight Him and the learning curve is really slow at the beginning.  We start to dig into the Word and find answers.  We feel like we are moving no where.  Then we begin to get a little victory.  We learn more and more how to love God and love others.  We finally start to figure out the statue of contentment.  We learn the statue of kindness and forgiveness next.  We begin to accelerate up the learning curve of affliction.  We are learning things the hard way.  That is the way God intended.  And you thought God was just punishing you.  But God loves you far more than that.  He wants to grow you.  He wants you to learn His statutes.

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