Devotions

When a believer is struck with a terminal illness, or a child is suddenly taken away, or troubles come rushing in one on top of another with no reprieve, the question often asked is not only “Why?” but “Why me?” The wise answer of a Christian friend dying of cancer is to the point in our meditation: “Why not me?”

Why should not all these things befall us when there isn’t one of us who doesn’t stand in need of the Lord’s chastening? Since we all admit that we’re “prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love,” then we must admit that we need the Lord’s loving rod of correction. God has sent many a Midianite army into our lives to deliver us from our idols and restore us into His fellowship. Discipline is never pleasant, but think where we would be without it! The psalmist said it well: “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (Psalm 119:67).

Why should not all these things befall us since by these troubles the genuineness of our faith is proved? Counterfeit faith will not deliver us from God’s hell, so it is better for Him to send “divers temptations” into our lives now so that we (and others) can see that our trust in God is not merely the fair-weather variety. It will be too late to discover this on Judgment Day.

Why shouldn’t all these things befall us since they only drive us to Christ? If trouble moves us to pray more earnestly, to look unto Jesus more constantly, to read His word more carefully, why not me?