PSALM 34
17. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their distress and troubles.
18. The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent.
19. Many evils confront the consistently righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Amp.
This is another Psalm of David. When you look at these 3 verses you see suffering. He is saying the righteous will have distress, troubles, many evils and a broken heart. The world would look at that and say, “Why be a Christian?”
Many worldly people also have these problems, but they don’t have the promiser. We are told that the Lord would be close to us, hear our cry and deliver us out of them all. That makes the trouble so small because the Lord is so big.
When you make a commitment to follow Jesus, you become a target for Satan to attack. He will use those closest to you to try to discourage you. He may make them sick or just cause them to distance themselves from you. How ever he does it you can be sure he wants to break your heart. He will even attack the pets you love. We are at war and must learn to fight.
David Wilkerson had a message called “The Snake Pit.” In it he spoke about snake handlers. He said when they are first learning to become snake handlers, they get into the snake pit to learn their moves. He was saying the Lord sometimes will allow us to be in the snake pit with Satan to learn his moves.
It is definitely not a fun place to be, but a very valuable lesson is there to be learned. I have been in the snake pit. I have had many troubles, distress, evils and afflictions thrown at me with many broken hearts. At the time I had no idea why I had so much to deal with. And I know I was being judged by those around me.
But the Lord has a plan, and He does not give us the answers to every why we ask. Many in the Bible had the same afflictions who were used mightily by Him. Just look at Joseph, Daniel, David, Jacob and Paul.
There are lessons to be learned and there is only one way to learn them. We all must go through the School of Suffering. We can avoid it if we compromise our way and take the easy way. Satan will always provide an easy way to escape the suffering. But you take that long road alone without Jesus.
The key to all suffering is that He will be with us making it all work for our good. He hears every cry and heals every sorrow. When we come out then we recognize Satan’s tactic’s in others’ lives and know how to pray. One thing He definitely wants us to learn through our sufferings is compassion.
He knows what we need and will allow us to go through the fires of affliction to burn off self and worldliness. And we can be forever grateful that He has taken the trouble to refine us.