In this world in which we live, the righteous faces various difficulties, but knows that the Lord God delivers him from all of them. God protects the bones of the righteous in such a way that not one bone is even broken.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all. (Psalm 34:19)
Why Do the Afflictions of the Righteous Exist?
It may even seem strange, but all afflictions have a purpose.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Nothing happens in our lives by chance; everything is under the grand control of God, and nothing escapes His purposes.
Everything that happens in a person’s life is within God’s purpose. When we speak of suffering, we are not talking only about something spiritual, but also about something that occurs in the physical world, things that affect our lives.
Have you ever stopped to think that losing a job is suffering? Because in the time we live in, this worker will certainly go through deprivations and difficulties.
But what we want to highlight is that all suffering has a purpose. And so that God can bless us, it is often necessary for the righteous to suffer some losses.
Going back to the example of this worker who lost his job, the door that God will open for him has infinitely more than the one he lost. Many times, to experience new things, it is necessary to let some old things go.
Biblical Examples of Afflictions and Deliverance
Job is an example of a righteous man who experienced suffering. Job lost all his wealth, his children, and his health, but Job did not abandon God at any moment.
Job understood that God had given wealth, children, family, and God had taken it away. And because of his loyalty and faithfulness to God, in the end, we see that the Lord restored everything in Job’s life!
The greatest difficulty that human beings face amid suffering is remaining in God. Remaining in God during times of abundance and happiness is easy, but remaining with God in times of suffering is only for those who truly love God with all their heart and trust Him entirely.
In the Bible, we have several examples of the righteous suffering. Moses was raised in the palace but suffered in the desert because he was participating in the process of liberating God’s people.
Joseph, for loving God and His precepts, also experienced the afflictions of the righteous because he chose not to lie with Potiphar’s wife and ended up unjustly imprisoned.
Understand that for Joseph to become governor of Egypt, there was a path, and this path involved experiencing the afflictions of the righteous. Joseph was sold by his own brothers as a slave, then thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit, and after some time of affliction, Joseph finally achieved his blessing, becoming governor of all Egypt.
Daniel prayed three times a day and also experienced the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivered him from the lions’ den.
Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before. (Daniel 6:10)
Our father in faith, Abraham, also experienced the afflictions of the righteous. When Abraham had to go to the mountain of sacrifice, walking to the place where Isaac would be sacrificed, Abraham experienced this moment of anguish and affliction.
Afflictions are moments we live through, but they have an end. We must understand that every moment of affliction is to lead us to the fulfillment of a purpose.
We must remain firm in God and ask Him to deliver us from these moments of affliction. God has His ears attentive to our cry, for the Lord says:
Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3)
