Thankful For Affliction
BRD REFLECTION 2025
Isaiah 27 and Psalm 119:65-72 (NIV)
(Elizabeth Ong Ling Lee, Small Group Ministry)
READ:
For this devotion, I have chosen to focus on the verse Psalm 119:71: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”
OBSERVE:
Psalm 119:65-72 reminds me of the utter importance of learning God’s commandments, believing and delighting in them and keeping them. I learn that when I undergo affliction, it is a good thing, because affliction turns me away from sinful ways and leads me on a path towards keeping God’s word (v67); through affliction, I learn His statutes (v 71), gaining an understanding of the wisdom of His ways.
Keeping His commandments is so vital to my journey as a disciple of Christ that He allows affliction in my life. The suffering that I go through has helped me to acquire godliness. I now know that affliction is part of “everything we need for a godly life” that God’s divine power has given us (2 Peter 1:3) (NIV) .
APPLY:
As with all of God’s children, I have had my fair share of afflictions. Over the years, affliction has arisen in the family I grew up in, in my marriage, with my children, in my health and well-being, and in my jobs. Some of these afflictions are long-term, lasting years and even decades. They demand continual internal work (re-setting my attitudes and the way I perceive the other person or the situation), the exercise of extending grace, and the practice of patience and endurance. Reading this passage has helped me to understand that my life’s afflictions are for a divine purpose: to help me to learn, believe in, delight in and keep the commandments of my God.
DO:
When I praise God for His abundant blessings for me, I will remember to praise Him especially for the afflictions in my life. I will regard my afflictions with humility, gratitude and joy. I will trust God fully for what He is doing in my life, totally convinced that no matter what affliction arises, my God is good and does good in my life (Psalm 119:68).
PRAY:
My dearest Father, I thank You for each and every one of the afflictions in my life. Please forgive me for the times when I wanted to give up, devising plans that were not from You. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit’s work guiding me, reminding me of Jesus’s teachings, and cautioning me to stay away from sin and extend grace to those whom I have been hurt by, just as I have received grace abundantly from You.
