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Bowen's Daily Meditations
Devotional: July 7th

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"Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." - Psalms 34:19.

The Bible does not mock the anguish-bitten soul by telling it that the Christian cannot experience unhappiness or disappointment; or by telling it that it has no business to be wretched. The followers of the righteous Jesus are told distinctly that there are afflictions for them; and that these afflictions are many. So in drawing up an inventory of what belongs to them, they may put down many afflictions. These are a part of their property.

We see that it is not a disreputable thing to suffer. We are in good company. The righteous man is infinitely more blessed in his afflictions than the unrighteous man is in his exemption. The den of lions may be a better place than the royal couch.

The afflictions of the righteous are those that he encounters in the attempt to walk righteously. Some come upon him from his unsubmissive nature struggling against the new principle that seeks to control it. Many from the wickedness of men, who do their utmost that he may not continue in a path that they’ abhor. Many from the lukewarmness and want of sympathy of his brethren. Some from the suggestions of the adversary, seeking to undermine his faith. Others again from the strange procedure of God, very different from what he had erringly anticipated. He thought that God would never let him be cast into a pit or sold to Ishmaelites. He thought that God would move with the speed of lightning to his rescue. He thought that God would call to him out of the clouds, " I have heard thy prayer," Some afflictions come upon him from wounded affections. Some from the disappearance of loved ones. Happy for us if we are able to feel in all our afflictions that they are the afflictions of the righteous. Not brought upon us by our own folly - by the neglect of divine guidance - by the contravention of providence.

All the afflictions of the righteous open out into something glorious. The prisoner is not merely delivered, but he finds an angel waiting for him at the door. And with every deliverance comes a specific blessing. One angel is named faith; another, love; another, joy; another, long-suffering; another, gentleness; another, goodness; another, meekness; another, temperance; another, peace. Each of these graces says, " We have come out of great tribulation.’’

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