Contentment in the Midst of Adversity

I stopped by today to visit someone very special to me. I will not mention the person’s name. Someone mentioned to me that this person was experiencing severe trials. In the midst of current financial hardship, this person received a letter from the I.R.S. stating that they were garnishing her paycheck until she pays back $10,000 they found that she owes them.

I asked her how things were going. As I did she began to cry and asked, “why would God allow such things to happen?” She was perplexed and trying to process that fact that she was going to have the only money she had to survive on, taken away by the I.R.S. I have to admit that as I thought about the I.R.S., I became furious because they can send out I.O.U.’s when they owe citizens money, but if the citizens owe them, they will take what you have!

I began to encourage her by using the example of Job in the Scriptures. Job had experienced terrible circumstances which included the loss of possessions, bodily affliction, and loss of his family. In all these things Job persisted in trusting God by understanding that God was sovereign over the circumstances. When Job’s wife told him to “curse God and die,” he said to her, “you speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” The Scripture declares, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” In tears, the person I was speaking with asked, “why is it that those that hate God are happy? They never have problems. They have all they need.” She further cried out saying, “I don’t hurt anyone, I love God, I try to do the best that I can. I don’t understand!”

I quoted from Psalm 73. “For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Their pride is their necklace.” The psalmist comes to himself and says “Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin, how they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!” The psalmist closes by saying,

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near to God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” Psalm 73

At one point in the conversation, the person in despair, said that she wished she could end it all. I continued to minister to her by explaining to her again that only God knows why He brings these circumstances into our lives. Ultimately, we are tested by fiery trials in order to be sanctified as God conforms us into the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters, we must remember that it is God who is on the throne. We must conform our thoughts after His will. As the great hymn says, “Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”
We will not know what the future holds, but we do know the One who holds the future. Paul stated in Philippians 4, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Of this passage Matthew Henry comments,

“We have here an account of Paul’s learning, not that which he got at the feet of Gamaliel, but that which he got at the feet of Christ. He had learnt to be content; and that was the lesson he had as much need to learn as most men, considering the hardships and sufferings with which he was exercised. He was in bonds, and imprisonments, and necessities, often; but in all he had learnt to be content, that is, to bring his mind to his condition, and make the best of it.—I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound, v. 12. This is a special act of grace, to accommodate ourselves to every condition of life, and carry an equal temper of mind through all the varieties of our state. (1.) To accommodate ourselves to an afflicted condition-to know how to be abased, how to be hungry, how to suffer want, so as not to be overcome by the temptations of it, either to lose our comfort in God or distrust his providence, or to take any indirect course for our own supply. (2.) To a prosperous condition-to know how to abound, how to be full, so as not to be proud, or secure, or luxurious. And this is as hard a lesson as the other; for the temptations of fulness and prosperity are not less than those of affliction and want. But how must we learn it? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, v. 13. We have need of strength from Christ, to enable us to perform not only those duties which are purely Christian, but even those which are the fruit of moral virtue. We need his strength to teach us to be content in every condition.

I will continue to minister to this family member and others by pointing them to the Great Savior! Because He overcame the world, so have we. Many are facing tough circumstances in today’s world, but we can rejoice in the face of adversity and know that the circumstances will work for our good and God’s glory. Let us say to ourselves as we trust in the Lord, “whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.” We will be able to declare this as we grow in our understanding of God’s sovereignty.