Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4
“Consider all the experience that you have had of God’s doing good to you in the want of many comforts. When God crosses you, have you never had experience of abundance of good in afflictions? It is true, when ministers only tell men that God will work good out of their afflictions, they hear them speak, and think they speak like good men, but they feel little or no good; they feel nothing but pain. But when we cannot only say to you that God has said He will work good out of your afflictions, but we can say to you, that you yourselves have found it so by experience, that God has made former afflictions to be great benefits to you, and that you would not have been without them, or without the good that came by them for a world, such experiences will exceedingly quiet the heart and bring it to contentment.”
Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646) in The Rare Jewel Of Christian Contentment (Preach the Word) 131.
I am thankful for the goodness and generosity that comes to us from God both in our afflictions and out of afflictions. These gifts quiet our hearts and bring our hearts to contentment.
As I rest this weekend I give thanks for “God’s doing good” to me “in the want of many comforts.” In other words, in His goodness, He does not always relieve my pain or answer because He wants me to grow in different areas.
For example, I learn patience. I grow in faith. I find joy. And all this experience forms in me perseverance so I mature and am not lacking in anything I need in my service to God. Think about it.
That’s generosity: God not giving us what we want when we want it but allowing us to suffer to quiet our hearts and bring them to maturity and contentment. Thanks God. You are so good.