Title
Overcoming Afflictions is Doable
Scripture
No one should be shaken by... afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.
(1 Thessalonians 3:3)
Devotional
Our text is much easier said than done. No one like afflictions, no one seeks them, but like it or not, they come. Afflictions are as much a part of life as dying and as inevitable. Expecting them helps us to handle them. Knowing that the afflictions of today will be replaced by the afflictions of tomorrow will either discourage us or cause us not to be overly shaken by them. The psalmist tells us, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all."[28] When we realize that manifold affliction, no matter how severe, are temporary, we will be more likely to see them as opportunities to gain: knowledge, wisdom and understanding. We can grow through them or die in them. It truly is a choice that we are, by God's grace, able to make. I fully realize that there are afflictions that at first appear to be more than we can handle; they are so overwhelming that at our first stand against them, we fail. Nevertheless, with Christ, we can and will overcome whatever afflictions life sends our way.