A Troubled Mind (continued)...

In my previous post, I shared some helpful words from Timothy Rogers (from his book, Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholy). He has much to say regarding the purposes and designs of our great God in afflicting us. And when we speak of affliction, it is not merely physical ailments or even weighty life circumstances. We actually should think of the deep and sometimes tormenting afflictions of the soul, whether as a result of sin, or a predatory influence of the enemy on our inner man. Whatever the cause of our affliction, God's purposes and intended outcomes are what we should be looking toward, instead of our own personal reprieve and temporary comfort. By turning to HIm in all things, we will be comforted and sustained, even if our afflictions are not removed or lightened in severity.

So, let's look again at the divine purposes that build on the four mentioned a few days ago:

5. Another end that God may have in the continuance of long and sore affliction, and great inward troubles, is to reveal more clearly to us the corruption and defilement of our nature. In a calm, the waters of the sea appear to be clear enough; but when the storm comes, it throws up the mire and the dirt. In prosperity and health, we think we have very good hearts and considerable degrees of sanctification; but when sin is set upon us, the spiritual law of God begins to show its purity. And oh, what multitudes of iniquities then appear! What unbelief, what impatience, what murmuring, what unbecoming thoughts of God, such hideous and strange thoughts we have as we have never had before! And oh, what a ghastly sight this is, to see such a numerous brood of transgressions, when we imagined that all had been very well with us!

6. Another end that God has in the continuance of spiritual troubles and afflictions, and the sense of His wrath long upon us, is that from our experience Christ may be forever precious to us. When we are at ease and think ourselves whole, we seldom think of Him. But our pain, our smart, our guilt and our fears, the sight of our present danger and of approaching wrath, all cause us to run to this Physician and beg His help when we are sinking. They will make us stretch out our hands and say, 'Master, save us or else we perish!' Having fallen among lions, having been the slaves of fear and having been held in captivity by the temptations of Satan, we shall most gladly shake off our chains and embrace liberty and salvation when our Lord comes to set us free. Oh, how our hearts will melt with love when we remember that, as we have been distressed for our sins against Him, so He was in greater agonies for us! Surely, such a Friend, such a Physician, as He has been to us, we must be ever valued.

7. God also does this so that we may put a high value on the Scriptures, that we may search and look into them with more earnestness and frequency, to see if there are any promises in them that are reviving, and place in them that may afford hope and comfort to souls so miserable and so guilty. For when our consciences are awakened and pierced with the sense of wrath from God, if His Word would speak to us, we could have ease.

8. Another end of God in continuing afflictions and a long, remaining sense of His wrath upon us is that we may be everlasting admirers of the freeness of His grace when we are delivered. Oh, with what wonder should we behold His condescension and His care for us, that when our wounds were very deep, He poured in wine and oil; when we were inwardly bleeding, and no creature or friend on earth could help us, He did not allow us to bleed to death. The hand of God is so strong, and His wisdom is so admirable, that He turns to our profit and advantage not only the evils which are caused by cross events, or by the world, but those which we commit ourselves, and that seem contrary to our salvation, even those sins which we are guilty of. He changes these poisons into medicine, these scandals into edification, and from the thickest darkness He brings out light.

9. Another end why God suffers His servants so long to remain under the impressions of His wrath is that they may learn to be merciful and helpful to such as are in the same case, and to such as are sinning, and have not yet felt the displeasure of God for their sins. We must not grieve others by a sharp or unseasobale discourse; when they are in the furnace, we must not make it hotter by imprudent bitterness. They are wounded in their souls, and those wounds require a gentle, skillful, and tender hand. Every one of us should say, 'They are troubled on every side, and so was I. They are afraid that He has departed, and so was I. Those arrows of the Almighty that stick in them only a little while ago stuck in me. When others have fallen into the same pit that we have just gotten out of, let us strive to draw them up. Let us put on the bowels of compassion; let us patiently hear what they say, and not rebuke them for complaining; let us not be weary of their discourse because it is doleful and troublesome. Let us remember all that speech and usage that made us worse when we were ill and avoid all such with them. Let us remember what it was that gave us some support, and let us minister the same to them.

When any of our friends are very sick, if we know anything that has been beneficial to us under the like case, we make all the speed we can to fetch it, and we cannot see them faint without finding at the same time a very sensible commotion in our own hearts. No outward affliction, though never so painful, is as terrible as these spiritual troubles are. Let us therefore be more affectionately concerned for such distressed persons than for any others when we see the anger of God beginning to kindle in their consciences. Let us use all the methods that are most likely to quench the beginning flame, let us be very kind and pitiful to all who are in distress, since we have been so ourselves. Let us take all opportunities to visit, to exhort, and to direct them. Let us wrestle with the God of Jacob on their behalf; let them see that we sympathize most heartily with them, and that, though the grace of God has wiped away our tears, we can still weep with those who weep. Let us take all the ways we can to make them believe that we are afflicted with their affliction and are sincerely concerned for the sadness of their case.

Oh, how I have personally benefited from the ministry of a dear friend when going through similar afflictions of soul! Be encouraged, my friends, and let us all use such careful means with one another, that we may persevere together!