Learning From Affliction

UV 3238/10000 Learning from Affliction
Though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of oppression, yet your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will (constantly) see your Teacher.

Isaiah 30 v 20

Adversity is a greater teacher of mankind than prosperity. Our pain, our loneliness, our sorrow, our sheer helplessness drives us in times of adversity to seek answers to such questions as to why it is happening to us, what is it that we did right or wrong for it to happen to us, how do we get out of it. At such times, the Teacher, meaning either Jesus or the Holy Spirit appears to us and He will walk us through the affliction, giving us answers as we go. We will hear His quiet voice whispering behind our ears, “ Take this path or that path.” The pain and the tears clears our vision and we begin to see the Teacher. We set aside our pride, our disbelief, our doubts, our fears to continually communicate and relate to the Teacher.

Extreme adversity causes us to pray without ceasing. The weakness of our flesh, the reluctance of our minds to believe and pray is overcome by the heavy odds of the reality we are facing- an encounter with death, a debilitating disease of a loved one, a financial crisis with no end in sight, bereavement and so on. Jesus who was called Rabbi or Teacher during His sojourn on Earth is the Wonderful Counsellor. He counsels us on what we should do. He sends us the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity as our Comforter and Remembrancer of what He has taught us.

Jesus does not promise us a rosy or utopian future. He told us that “ In this world, you will have many troubles but you will overcome even as I have overcome.” Jesus overcame by the power of God, of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, we too can overcome our troubles and trials and emerge victorious, better and not bitter as the enemy would like us to be. I do not believe in the make believe of religion but I do believe in "realigion" where God is a real, active partner and constant friend and guide with me in facing all of life’s challenges and difficulties. He equips me in real time, He teaches me to lean on Him and learn the lessons of life and of eternity through all the pain and suffering of afflictions as of good times. He imparts wisdom at a practical and real level. He gives me supernatural help and imbues me with supernatural grace or strength. He gives me the confidence and peace that however things go, it will end well either here on Earth or in eternity.