Many evils confront the [consistently] righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. – Pslam 34:19, AMP

Margaret is a retired missionary. For some time she has been tending to a dear, dying friend, a fellow retired missionary named Gail. Gail died just a few days ago, and two days before she passed, she had an awful day. But, as Margaret reports, Gail knew that God would be faithful to heal her soon:

Day before yesterday when she could hardly speak and was in real pain I asked her, “Gail, is God still good?”  She moved her mouth around a bit to get the word formed, and she finally said, “Yep!” She remained in victory right up to the end… Gail always said, “God will heal me, either here or in Heaven.”  Gail is healed!  No more pain forever.

Affliction is a fact of life, and no matter how young or how old we are, we will encounter affliction on a regular basis. The promise the Christian has is that the Lord will deliver us out of our affliction, either here or in eternity. The misconception that many Christians suffer from, however, is that the promise of deliverance will be fulfilled immediately.

As he reports in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul suffered from a thorn in the flesh that thoroughly afflicted him. But when Paul asked The Lord to remove the thorn from him, The Lord responded:

…My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness… 2 Corinthians 12:9a, (AMP)

Paul continues:

Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! 2 Corinthians 12:9b, (AMP)

God will, someday, deliver us from our affliction, and in that, we can find great comfort. But should God choose to allow affliction to linger, we would be wise to remember that the affliction is accompanied by God’s power and God’s grace. If we can revel, as Paul did, in the fact that Christ’s power will dwell with us whenever trouble presses upon us, then we will be able to face affliction triumphantly.

Gail clung tightly to the same gift of grace that Paul did in 2 Corinthians 12, and that is why she could recognize God’s goodness until the very end. Through her triumph in struggle she has drawn me closer to the very God whose hand she now holds, and I hope her testimony has done the same for you.

Shop hundreds of Christian-themed products at our new store! A portion of each purchase goes to support the work of Today’s Quote From God. To visit the Today’s Quote From God Store, please click here.