[b]The bitter pill of affliction[/b](Lewis Bayly, "The Practice of Piety" 1611)Nothing will more arm you with patience in your sickness, than to see that it comes from the hand of your heavenly Father, who would never send it but that He sees it to be to you both needful and profitable. For God, like a skillful physician, seeing the soul to be poisoned with the settling of sin, administers the bitter pill of affliction, whereby the remains of sin are purged, and the soul more soundly cured; the flesh is subdued, and the spirit is sanctified. O the odiousness of sin, which causes God to chasten so severely His children, whom otherwise He loves so dearly!
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
Judges 14v4, 'But his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord'. This speaks concerning Samson.However, things happen to us and we simply do not know that it is God showing us our error, and we are in desperate need of correction.So God gives us the pill, the medicine. Who like medicine? It is supposed to cure, not to be enjoyed.Am I glad when it's over!It is needed. Our pride doesn't like it, but we need it.God bless.
Isaiah 30:19-2219 O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. [b]20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, [u]your teachers will be hidden no more[/u]; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." [/b]22 Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, "Away with you!"
_________________Ed Pugh
