Don’t Waste Your Afflictions

It was no surprise that I got several messages and responses about last Sunday's sermon from James 1 on "Growing through Tough Times. " Because I know that there are many of you who are going through a difficult season and times of trial in your life. Those kind of passages from Scripture always seem to resonate with people, and it's a good reminder that so many people around us are going through hard things that we might not even know about. 

The question is not whether we will face trials. As we said Sunday, those trials are inevitable. The question is how we will face them, and whether we will allow them to make us better, or bitter. Sadly, too many people choose that second option, and it only exasperates the problems they face.

You may have heard of David Wilkerson, the pastor and evangelist, who passed away back in 2011. He was used powerfully in the Jesus Movement of the 1960's. He also started such ministries as Teen Challenge, which has helped literally hundreds of thousands of people recover from drug and alcohol addiction over the years, and he was the founding pastor of Times Square Church.. He wrote several books, including "The Cross and the Switchblade," about his work in New York City, taking the gospel to gang members, and featuring the radical life change of a man named Nicky Cruz. That book became a popular movie.

Wilkerson's most famous sermon was entitled "Don't Waste Your Afflictions." It was originally delivered at a World Challenge event and was distributed by that ministry for several decades. The simple focus of that sermon echoed the words of James we looked at last week, that suffering and trials are intentional tools used by God to shape Christian character. If we miss the purpose of those trials, we are forcing ourselves to endure meaningless pain.

In that sermon, Wilkerson suggested that affliction has a purpose, and that God uses the trials we face to train, test and develop us as believers. He compared the process to an investment, or an education in the "school of suffering." 

He used the likely example of the apostle Paul, who faced severe physical and relational hardships, including beatings, shipwrecks, and betrayal by false believers, not to mention his mysterious "thorn in the flesh," that the Lord used to keep him humble. Paul trusted that God allowed all of those things in his life, for his good, and for God's glory, and it was that perspective that allowed him to grow through the afflictions instead of allowing them to paralyze him spiritually.

And if God could use those trials in Paul's life, he can surely use them in ours too. The key is, as Wilkerson's sermon title suggests, that we not "waste" those afflictions we face, but we allow God to use them to grow perseverance in our lives, to increase our faith and dependence on Him, and to build godly character in our lives.

I know some of you are facing very difficult times right now. As I said Sunday, please don't give up. But also, I hope you won't waste that pain and those afflictions, when God could be using them to bring good things in your life, and grow you in Christ-likeness. Trust Him, knowing that He loves you more than you could ever even know, He sees the big picture you can't see, and He has a plan. 

I am grateful for each of you, and I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

--Pastor Ken