It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
Psalm 119:71 (NIV)
One of the mantras that I have adopted in life is there is a lesson in everything, there is always something that can be gleaned in each object and aspect of life. Think about a pencil for example, a pencil is solely utilized for writing but what other usage is encompassed in the pencil? The pencil writes, erases, sharpens, dulls, can resharpen, if broken can still be utilized, its starting form is not its ending form, and I am sure someone else has another usage form. When I think about the lessons, we glean from life I can’t help but think about affliction. Affliction is something that causes pain or suffering. Affliction can be bought on by self or there are times when God allows us to be afflicted.
In our passage the psalmist acknowledges that before there was affliction he went astray; it doesn’t signify that his affliction was caused by his actions, but one could be tempted to think going astray causes affliction. Whether or not the affliction is caused by the straying or not it has arrived. What happens when affliction shows up in your life and you don’t know where or why? What about when it seems like you are doing everything correctly, serving, giving, praying, and affliction comes in unwanted or unwarranted? Here’s a thought there’s a lesson in your affliction. The psalmist says it was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees, statues, law, or word. There’s a quote that says, “We must hurt in order to grow, fail in order to know, and lose in order to gain. Because some lessons in life are best learned through pain."[1] What is God teaching us through the affliction we endure or the pain we bare? Can you adjust your lens to see the good in affliction regardless of the pain it comes with? Have you become so conditioned to seeing affliction in one manner that you believe it’s just your season suffering? If we can learn like the psalmist that it was good that I was afflicted, maybe we see the necessity of affliction.
Talk to me readers, let me know what you think!
[1] https://www.dailyinspirationalquotes.in/2018/08/we-must-hurt-in-order-to-grow-fail-in-order-to-know-and-lose-in-order-to-gain-because-some-lessons-in-life-are-best-learned-through-pain/
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