When things go smoothly in our lives we develop a pattern.

1. We relax and enjoy the pleasantness of our lives
2. We gradually assume the attitude that we deserve and merit this pleasantness.
3. We gradually drift away from sober meditation, from taking sin seriously, from serious personal study of the Scriptures

Look at that pattern for a moment. Is it not accurate? Is it not almost always the case? Is it not true of me?

And then think of the results. If I continue to drift along in this pleasant way, growing more and more in self-righteous congratulations, then what? If I am allowed to neglect sober thought and the sobering contemplation of my own sin, then what? If I fall into the neglect of the Scriptures or else into nonchalant, impersonal reading of these Scriptures, then what?

The answer is that then I am ripe for serious falling into sin. If God allowed this pattern to continue, none of us would grow in grace. We would lose the assurance of salvation, lose the joys of growth in sanctification, lose our fellowship with God, lose our desire for heaven, and lose our faith. We cannot walk indifferently and in pride without fatal results.

And so, our God goes to work. He knows the weak points in each life and works to overcome these weak points. By His grace, He overcomes our sins, so controlling them that He does not permit these fatal results to occur but rather works out our salvation and His praise.

Thus, the first great blessing of suffering, in whatever form God sends it, is I that it stops us in our smug, self-assured path and makes us THINK.

Sinfully, our thinking often begins by asking, not submissively but rebelliously, WHY? The rebellion in this question is clearly sin but the fact of that naturally sinful response makes one thing quickly clear: we are not so faithful as we once assumed and we need contemplation. Yet if we ask that same question properly, not rebelliously, then the same question becomes profitable.

And as our thinking progresses from this starting point, God leads us as His children to the only place where His answers are found. He leads us to the Scriptures. He leads us to study them for ourselves, to find His answers. He leads us to listen more attentively when His ministers preach His Word.

That is blessing! Study of God’s Word with personal application is blessing in abundance. We may not always like it since it points to our sin, but the way of confession of sin and turning from it is, nonetheless, blessing. It draws us closer to God, the Fount of all blessing.

And so, in His love, God sends suffering. He sends it to bless us with sober contemplation of His way with us as revealed in His Word. He sends it that we may grow in our knowledge of Him through taking time for those things which are most important. Suffering produces the blessing of sober, Godly thought.