========================================================================
  IF OUR AFFLICTIONS ARE SO SANCTIFIED
  by Thomas Brooks
========================================================================

Summary: Afflictions are sent in love to draw us closer to God and
increase our love, courage, patience, faith, and hope.

Topics: "Affliction", "Divine Love"
Scripture References: Romans 5:3

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thomas Brooks emphasizes that afflictions, when sanctified, serve to
deepen our love, fear, and commitment to the Lord. He asserts that such
trials are not merely burdens but are the wounds of a friend, intended
to strengthen our faith, patience, and hope. By viewing our struggles
through this lens, we can recognize them as acts of divine love that
ultimately draw us closer to God.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If our afflictions are so sanctified as that

they draw out our soul . . .

to love the Lord more, and

to fear the Lord more, and

to please the Lord more, and

to cleave to the Lord more, and

to wait on the Lord more, and

to walk with the Lord more--

then they are sent in love. Oh, then they are

the wounds of a friend indeed!

If the afflictions that are upon us do . . .

increase our courage,

strengthen our patience,

raise our faith,

inflame our love, and

enliven our hopes--

certainly they are sent in love, and all

our wounds are the wounds of a friend.

========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/thomas-brooks/if-our-afflictions-are-so-sanctified/
========================================================================