Church history abounds with men and women God used mightily. One thing they share, besides their faith in Yahweh, is seasons of intense sufferings. A. W. Tozer once said, “It is doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” We can see it in the lives of the prophets who were mocked and scorned, the apostles who were beaten and martyred, and the numerous saints who marked history with the blood of their sacrifice.
Affliction doesn’t happen to heroes of the faith only; God ordained it for all believers. Jesus said whoever wants to be His disciple must deny themselves and carry their cross (Matthew 16:24). But that isn’t something that excites us.
No one wants to suffer. The enemy of our souls knows our tendency to flee from pain, and he uses it to draw us to sin. He presents us with the afflictions and sorrows of those who walk the path of holiness so we may choose wicked ways instead.
Puritan Thomas Brooks understood this evil scheme well and exposed it in his book, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. He said, “saith Satan, do you not see that there are none in the world that are so vexed, afflicted, and tossed, as those that walk more circumspectly and holier than their neighbours?…Therefore saith Satan, you were better to walk in ways that are less troublesome, and less afflicted though they be more sinful: for who but a madman would spend his days in sorrow, vexation, and affliction, when it may be prevented by walking in the ways that I set before him?”
Who would spend his days struggling with sin when he can surrender to its pleasure? Who would face persecution when he can embrace the world? Or who would hear of the sufferings of men like Job and Paul and follow their footsteps?
A madman indeed.
But the Word says, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:25)
When Satan tempts you to forsake the path of holiness for that of wickedness because of its unavoidable afflictions, meditate on these seven precious remedies by Thomas Brooks.
Remedy 1: “Afflictions suffered by Christians turn to their profit”
Brooks’ first remedy is to consider the benefit from our suffering and trials. The main one is its help in understanding the ugliness and filthiness of our sin.
He said, “Afflictions are a crystal glass, wherein the soul hath the clearest sight of the ugly face of sin. In this glass the soul comes to see sin not only to be an evil, but to be the greatest evil in the world, to be an evil far worse than hell itself.”
This realization motivates us to kill and mortify sin. “Afflictions are God’s furnace, by which he cleanses his people from their dross. Affliction is a fire to purge out our dross, and to make a virtue shine; it is a potion to carry away ill humours, better than all the benedictum medicamentum (commended remedies), as physicians call them. Aloes kill worms; colds and frosts do destroy vermin; so do afflictions the corruptions that are in our hearts.”
Remedy 2: “Afflictions only reach their worst, not their best, part”
God may afflict us, but He will not harm us. He who has His eyes on the sparrows will protect His children whom He cherishes more. Even if our body they kill, our triumph in Christ will abide still.
Brooks said, “All the afflictions that do befall the saints, do only reach their worser part; they reach not, they hurt not, their noble part, their best part. All the arrows stick in the target, they reach not the conscience: ‘And who shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?’ saith the apostle (1 Peter 3:13). That is, none shall harm you. They may thus and thus afflict you, but they shall never harm you…Afflictions may kill us, but they cannot hurt us; they may take away my life, but they cannot take away my God, my Christ, my crown.”
Remedy 3: “Afflictions are short and momentary”
Our sorrows, even the most severe ones, will end (Psalm 30:5). They are a vapor that appears for a moment before vanishing in an endless ocean of joy.
Brooks said, “This short storm will end in an everlasting calm, this short night will end in a glorious day, that shall never end. It is but a very short time between grace and glory, between our title to the crown and our wearing the crown, between our right to the heavenly inheritance and our possession of the heavenly inheritance…It will be but as a day before God will give his afflicted ones beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness for the spirit of heaviness; before he will turn all your sighing into singing, all your lamentations into consolation, your sackcloth into silks, ashes onto ointments and your fasts into everlasting feasts.”
Remedy 4: “Afflictions proceed from God’s dearest love”
Our afflictions show God has lavished us with such love that He adopted us as children (John 1:12, 1 John 3:1) because the Lord disciplines every son He receives (Hebrews 12:5-6, Revelation 3:19).
Brooks said, “Saints, saith God, think not that I hate you because I chide you. He that escapes reprehension may suspect his adoption. God had one Son without corruption, but no son without correction. A gracious soul may look through the darkest cloud, and see a God smiling on him. We must look through the anger of his correction to the sweetness of his countenance; even as by the rainbow we see the beautiful image of the sun’s light in the midst of as dark and waterish cloud.
Remedy 5: “Measure afflictions not by their smart but by their end”
The end of our troubles far outweighs their beginnings. As Jesus, who endured the cross for the joy that was set before him (Hebrews 12:2), we must also look past our present sufferings for the glory to come (Romans 8:18).
Brooks said, “Look not to the beginning of Joseph, who was so far from his dream that the sun and moon should reverence him, that for two years he was cast where he could see neither sun, moon, nor stars; but behold him at last made ruler over Egypt. Look not upon David as there was but a step between him and death, nor as he was envied by some, and slighted and despised by others; but behold him seated in his royal throne, and dying in his bed of honour, and his son Solomon and all his glistering nobles about him. Afflictions, they are but as a dark entry into your Father’s house; they are but as dirty lane to a royal palace.”
Remedy 6: “God’s design in saints’ afflictions is to try, not to ruin their souls”
As fire reveals impurities in gold, and as pressure exposes dirt in clay, so does our affliction disclose the content of our hearts.
Brook said, “Afflictions are like pinching frosts, that will search us, where we are most unsound, we shall soonest complain, and where most corruptions lie, we shall most shrink. We try metal by knocking; if sound well, then we like it. So God tries us by knocking, and if under knocks they yield a pleasant sound, God will turn their night into day, and their bitter into sweet, and their cross into a crown; and they shall hear that voice, ‘Arise, and shine; for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, and the favours of the Lord are flowing in on thee’(Isaiah 60: KJV).”
Remedy 7: “Afflictions consequent upon wickedness are far worse than those linked with holiness”
The way of the wicked, though seemingly pleasing, is paved with troubles that exceed those found on the path of righteousness. There is no peace for the wicked (Isaiah 48:22, 57:20).
Brooks said, “There is no solid joy, nor lasting peace, nor pure comfort, that attends sinners in their sinful ways. There is a sword of vengeance that doth every moment hang over their heads by a small thread; and what joy and content can attend such souls, if the eye of the conscience be but so far open as to see the sword? Ah! The horrors and terrors, the trembling and shakings, that attend their souls!”
The Christian life is a call to glory through a journey of suffering.
John MacArthur
Don’t forsake the path of holiness for it will lead you to eternal glory. And when afflictions and sorrows roll, remember the words of the psalmist. “This God—His way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.” (Psalm 18:30)
