God uses troubles in the Disciple’s Y life to draw us closer to Him and the image of His Son. We are being forged through the process of “becoming like His Son”. [Romans 8:29c] Examples include Joseph and Job in the Old Testament and Paul [2 Corinthians 12:1-10] in the New. These 3 people did not blame God but persevered. God comforts us in this process so we can then comfort others. See 10 troubles below:
1. Troubles may be the Consequences of sinful choices even if already acknowledged, confessed, repented and forgiven by God as occurred in King David’s life.
2. Discipline/Chastening yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness 7 God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 10 …He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (Hebrews 12:5-11)
3. Satan 1 Peter 5: 8-9a Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, Ephesians 6: 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, (1 Peter 5:6-10; Ephesians 6:10-18a)
4. Persecution Matthew 5: 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. and 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Romans 12:14)
5. God Prunes the branches/disciples John 15: 1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. (John 15:1-8)
6. Testing produces endurance and joy James 1: 2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
7. The world system is an anti-God system that is devoted to natural means for the creation of the universe and humans. Increasingly this world system includes parts of academia, media, entertainment, government, employers and some religious groups. The world system is referred to by John and in other places in the Bible as the “world”. John 15: 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
8. Results of living in a fallen world; people are suffering from moral and physical problems and natural disasters from the corruption resulting from the fall after Adam and Eve’s sin. Romans 8: 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers.
9. Thorns from Satan that God allows to keep believers humble and dependent on the power of Jesus as described in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
10. Disciples Y with troubles are comforted by God so they may comfort others.
2 Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Henry Luke February 4, 2016, last revised 10/9/2021
Notes: Y- “Disciples” or “Christians”?
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