“For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.”
~ Psalms 66:10-12
The Psalmist is reflecting back to the time of the Exodus. God brought the children of Israel out of bondage to bring them to a place of abundance. Jesus has also come to bring us out of the bondage of sin and into a place of abundance. John wrote, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
On more than one occasion I’ve heard a preacher say something like, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.”
I can’t say that when I first heard that statement I was ready to embrace it with open arms. Suffering is not something we invite into our lives, but it is something that we will all experience. We will all suffer because we live in a fallen world. Some suffer for evil and others for righteousness sake.
Furthermore suffering adversity is the university that prepares us for the abundant Christian life. When the Bible speaks of the abundant life it’s not speaking primarily of wealth and prosperity, but of fruitfulness in service. We’ve been saved to serve the cause of Christ, which to a transformed believer is worth suffering for when we he/she has the right perspective. The more we see the worth of Christ and the cause for which He laid His life down for, namely to save sinners, the more willing we will be to suffer and sacrifice if need be to advance His cause in the world.
I’ve learned recently that the quote, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply” was made by AW Tozer. It is helpful to see it in the context in which he wrote it to understand what he meant by it.
“The flaming desire to be rid of every unholy thing and to put on the likeness of Christ at any cost is not often found among us. We expect to enter the everlasting kingdom of our Father and to sit down around the table with sages, saints and martyrs; and through the grace of God, maybe we shall; yes maybe we shall. But for most of us it could prove at first an embarrassing experience. Ours might be the silence of the untried soldier in the presence of the battle-hardened heroes who have fought the fight and won the victory and who have scars to prove that they were present when the battle was joined. Tozer continues by saying that it is ‘necessary’ for God to use suffering in his holy work of preparing his saints, adding, ‘It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.”
In his epistle to the Galatians Paul wrote, “...for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6:17).
In context Paul is pointing out that one of the great evidences of a true disciple is demonstrated by their love for Christ in their willingness to suffer all manner of hardships for the sake of the gospel (see also 2 Cor. 11:16–12:10).
“Not all of us live in cultures or societies where physical harm is an inevitable part of faithfulness to Christ Jesus. Yet all of us should bear some kind of marks that testifies to our faithfulness to the Lord, whether they are insults from coworkers or professors, loss of a job, the sacrifice of worldly goods for the sake of gospel ministry, or other such things. What are the marks you bear that testify to your faithfulness to our Lord and Savior?” (LM)
He’s worthy!
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