I had lunch with a buddy yesterday . . . a buddy who’s going through the ringer . . . he’s just been getting hammered . . . and has been for quite some time. My on-going prayer for him has been that he wouldn’t lose heart . . . that he’d keep on keepin’ on . . . that though heaven seems silent at times, he’d know that God is faithful . . . and that he would, in turn, be faithful . . . that “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15 ESV).

I had arrived at lunch prepared to offer counsel. He had sent me an e-mail a week or so earlier with a number of soul searching questions . . . and I arrived at lunch with a few answers. And here’s the thing . . . he had already found the answers. And guess where. The Word of God. Through everything he’s been through He has not stopped seeking for answers to his questions in the place where God has determined to provide answers — the Bible. And guess how. God, through the illuminating ministry of the Spirit, had revealed something of His perspective on the situation to my buddy. It’s called being “transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). And sometimes it happens in the crucible of trials and adversity. The psalmist knew it . . .

“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes. The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.”
(Psalm 119:71-72 ESV)

This buddy of mine isn’t my first “close encounter” with this dynamic between trials and the Word. I have seen the same thing in others’ lives. The going gets tough, and they keep going to the Word of God. And in some cases, that’s the only lifeline they have . . . it’s the only thing that sustains them . . . and invariably they come out of the trial wiser to the mind of God and more in love than ever with the Word of God. To some degree, a much lesser degree, I can look back on my “times of afflictions” and see too that dynamic at play. There’s something about getting beat up that softens the soil of the heart . . . making it “good soil.” And if we’ll seed it with the Word of God, it will eventually result in “bearing fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).

The psalmist too could look back (praise God for perspective) and say that it was “good” . . . that it was valuable . . . that he had in fact prospered . . . because of the affliction. Not necessarily because he won in the end . . . not necessarily because God had restored ten-fold that which had been lost . . . but because he had learned . . . he had been taught . . . he had been trained . . . in the ways of God . . . and concerning the Person of God. He learned things in the grinder that he could not have learned anywhere else. He had gained firsthand experience how “living and powerful” the Word can really be (Heb. 4:12) . . . how, given the right condition of heart, His Word not only reveals the mind of God but the condition of our soul. Rather than the psalmist becoming bitter, he had become better.

And not only was the psalmist refined like gold or silver in fire, but his love for, and valuing of, the Word also became purer. The Word of God had increased in value to the trial-worn warrior . . . he esteemed it better than gold or silver. Invaluable . . . priceless . . . such is the estimation of those who have intimately interacted with God’s revealed mind during times of intense struggle.

I left lunch pretty encouraged. Trial’s not over for my buddy . . . but he’s going to the right place for answers. He’s asking . . . and seeking . . . and knocking. And God is faithful and, in His time, will answer . . . and will be found . . . and will open the door (Matt. 7:7). And my buddy will be better. Farther along he will look back and may even say it was “good” because of what he learned in the fire. For now, God gets the glory . . . another reminder that He is faithful . . . that His grace is sufficient . . . and that His Word is a light that guides through the darkness.