| The Christian Life | September 1947 |
The secret of Christian victory
Divine Help for the Humble
“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.”—Psalm 34:18,19
SOLOMON says that “a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” (Prov. 24:16) From this we gather that an unjust man is one who falls but does not attempt to arise and make amends for his shortcomings. There is no virtue in making mistakes; but there is virtue in acknowledging them, and seeking divine grace to help us overcome our weaknesses.
If we are truly broken-hearted over our shortcomings, then the Lord will be nigh to help us; but he resisteth the proud, and giveth grace only to the humble. The Lard hasn’t promised to prevent us from making mistakes because he knows that we need such “afflictions” to break our hearts and to make us contrite. For the same reason God permits afflictions of other kinds—he knows they are good for us as new creatures in Christ—for they are among the “all things” which are bound, under his overruling, to work together for our best interests as Christians.—Rom. 8:28-30
What God has promised to do is to save, or deliver us from our various afflictions when he sees that it is for our best interests and there are some needed lessons for us to learn. Sometimes it may require a lifetime to learn these lessons. The Apostle Paul had a great affliction, a “thorn in the flesh,” from which he earnestly sought deliverance; but God didn’t deliver him. Instead, Paul received the assurance of divine grace to help him bear the constant goading of that “thorn”—“My grace is sufficient for thee.”—II Cor. 12:7-10
So it is with us. We may have a blemish of some kind, perhaps a physical weakness, which we feel is interfering with our service and if freed from it, we imagine we could serve the Lord so much better. Perhaps our “thorn in the flesh” is some weakness of character that causes us to err repeatedly along some particular line. The Lord may permit us to fall seven times, or even seventy times seven, yet he picks us up each time, graciously delivering and forgiving us.
The secret of obtaining God’s blessings through all our afflictions is to have a humble heart, a contrite spirit. He may permit us to fall in order that we may be kept humble. He may permit other afflictions for the same purpose; but when we humbly cry to him in our distress, he will deliver us. Upon this we can depend! In this assurance we can go on in the narrow way toward the kingdom.
May we all learn to glory in our infirmities, knowing that in them divine strength is made perfect!—II Corinthians 12:9