Nahum 1:12 — Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
Human beings are incredibly self destructive. We smoke like chimneys even though it ruins our respiratory systems. We drink like fish even though it destroys our livers. We consume foods that have little nutritional value and may cause heart disease. We listen to music at such high volume that we experience hearing loss. We expose ourselves to pornography and other sinful content that corrupts our minds and hearts. We afflict ourselves and each other, but think God ought not to do so, even though the affliction He gives is sent to save us.
Yes, God afflicts us. Sometimes affliction is the surest way for God to save us from self-destruction. The Bible says that the Lord may give us the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but it is so we may wake up and see our Teacher, God (Isaiah 30:20). God may place us in a furnace of affliction to refine us, to remove impurities in our lives that are poisoning us (Isaiah 48:10).
Sometimes we are so deep in sin, so blind and deaf to our condition, that only affliction from God can save us from our self-affliction. “He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears by adversity” (Job 36:15).
This is not to say that all our afflictions come from God. Affliction also comes from the devil, the people he uses, and from natural causes. But God does use these other afflictions in our lives to draw us to Him and to mold and make us as clay more like Jesus. Afflictions all eventually come to an end. Paul reminds us that “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
Are you afflicted? Run to Jesus for comfort and strength. He knows what is like to be afflicted. “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4).
12/20/2024 Devotional
"Sometimes affliction is the surest way for God to save us from self-destruction."
"때때로 고난은 하나님께서 우리를 스스로 망하는 길로 부터 구원하시는 가장 확실한 방법입니다."
시편 139:23-24 RNKSV
[23] 하나님, 나를 샅샅이 살펴보시고, 내 마음을 알아주십시오. 나를 철저히 시험해 보시고, 내가 걱정하는 바를 알아주십시오. [24] 내가 나쁜 길을 가지나 않는지 나를 살펴보시고, 영원한 길로 나를 인도하여 주십시오.
Psalms 139:23-24 NLT
[23] Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. [24] Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life.