Discipline Seven - Suffering Affliction - Building the Best Life Possible

Today we all share something in common – the painful problem of afflictions.

Affliction – Job said it was unavoidable, Paul said expect it as part of God's plan, and Jesus said don't fear I won't take it away just go with you through it!

Listen carefully and mark your Bibles with me. This one lesson you learn this morning may impact you all the rest of your life.

This morning we are looking at pains and problems, trials and troubles, and afflictions and adversities. What they are and why they come. And when they do come – how to respond.

The Christian life will sometimes be painful and full of problems. To get an idea of the scope of affliction just interview a few characters of the Bible. Does following the Lord have a price attached?

Ask Abel, his blood still cries from the earth where it splashed as a wicked brother murdered him in the first religious war. Abel was a man of simple faith and Cain the murderer was a man of human achievement.

Or you may wish to listen to Enoch about how painfully hard it was to walk all alone with God when the whole world wasn't. Again you might hear the voice of Noah rising above the hostile crowd who pressured and pestered him for 120 years as he obeyed God even when no one else in the world listened, believed or even cared. The Christian life will sometimes be painful and full of problems.

Scriptures are filled with the painful troubles that follow God's saints. Abraham had to leave all his loved ones and culture behind, to follow God. He wandered in the desert and lived in a tent awaiting a son whom it never seemed was going to come. And then he nearly had to kill that son of promise as an offering to God. Jacob wrestled and wa