December: Trials and Pain

The devil, things and people being what they are, it is necessary for
God to use the hammer, the file and the furnace in His holy work of
preparing a saint for true sainthood. It is doubtful whether God can
bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.

The Root of the Righteous, 157.


December 18

Trials and Pain: We May Expect Troubles

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In
the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world.
--John 16:33

We are all idealists. We picture to ourselves a life on earth
completely free from every hindrance, a kind of spiritual Utopia
where we can always control events, where we can move about as
favorites of heaven, adjusting circumstances to suit ourselves.
This we feel would be quite compatible with the life of faith and
in keeping with the privileged place we hold as children of God.

In thinking thus we simply misplace ourselves; we mistake earth for
heaven and expect conditions here below which can never be realized
till we reach the better world above. While we live we may expect
troubles, and plenty of them. We are never promised a life without
problems as long as we remain among fallen men....

What then are we to do about our problems? We must learn to live
with them until such time as God delivers us from them. If we
cannot remove them, then we must pray for grace to endure them
without murmuring. Problems patiently endured will work for our
spiritual perfecting. They harm us only when we resist them or
endure them unwillingly.
Of God and Men, pp. 121-122

"Lord, I'm so homesick for heaven. But until You allow me to come
home, I do indeed 'pray for grace to endure [problems] without
murmuring.' Amen."