It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. Ps. 119:71
For it has been granted (grace-gifted) to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. Phil. 1:29
Dear heavenly Father, only your transforming grace and a certainty of your love, could’ve moved King David to thank you for the “gift” of affliction. How else could he have embraced pain as an occasion of praise? The gospel, literally, turns everything upside down; it’s the most counterintuitive force in the world. What a most holy and freeing paradox: suffering as a gift; difficulties as an occasion of delight; hardship as the fuel for hallelujahs…
Father, I well remember the years I spent trying to spiritually finagle my way out of harm’s way—believing that if I claimed the right verses, prayed the right prayers, did the right things, then I’d have an abundant life filled with “blessings,” and marked by a scarcity of difficulties. But who has the right and authority to define “blessing” but you? It’s not that I want to suffer more; but I do want to know you better.
I wanted you to be more like a “sugar daddy” than “Abba, Father”—a predictable, manageable heavenly maitre d’, catering to my wishes. I wasn’t thinking about learning your decrees, but about escaping discomfort. Father, thank you for being so patient and forbearing with me—a posture from you I still need and enjoy, every day.
It’s only because Jesus took the afflictions I deserve as a sinful rebel, that I’m now afflicted as a beloved son. Because of his finished work, I’m not afraid of you as my judge; but I revere and love you as my Father. Because of Jesus’ great grace, I no longer despise or dread the your decrees; but I now delight in them.
Indeed, Father, your decrees are not rules by which I earn anything from you; they are the wisdom by which I learn about everything from you—a light and lamp to my feet, and a joy to my heart. Only the gospel can explain this reorientation…
Father, I humbly ask you to keep me in this journey of gospel freedom, even this very day. Keep turning everything upside down and right side up. Help me to increasingly fear you, not be afraid of you; to love your glory way more than my comfort; to be a son, to the praise of your great gospel and glorious name. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ name.