Learning From Adversity

You did not so learn Christ!

Ephesians 4:20 RSV

Alexander MacLaren, a distinguished Manchester preacher (1826–1910), wrote, “What disturbs us in this world is not trouble, but our opposition to trouble. The true source of all that frets and irritates and wears away our lives is not in external things but in the resistance of our wills to the will of God expressed by eternal things.”

To resent and resist God’s disciplining hand is to miss one of the greatest spiritual blessings we Christians can enjoy this side of heaven.

Whatever it is—aggravations, trouble, adversity, irritations, opposition—we haven’t “learned Christ” until we have discovered that God’s grace is sufficient for every test.

Though Job suffered as few men have, he never lost sight of God’s presence with him in the midst of suffering. He emerged victorious on the other side of sorrow and testing because he never allowed resentment to cloud his relationship with God.

The attitude which can overcome resentment is expressed by the writer to the Hebrews: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (12:11 NIV).

Our Father and our God, teach me Your righteousness, whether through blessings or burdens. Give me an understanding heart, an attitude of service, a longing for purity. Discipline me when I need it, Father, out of Your great parental love. Teach me humility and patience in suffering. Through Christ. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).