Trouble, sorrow, and affliction'

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"And He led them forth by the right way, 
that they might go to a city of habitation."
Psalm 107:7

Those very times when God's people think 
they are faring ill, may be the seasons when 
they are really faring well. For instance, when 
their souls are bowed down with trouble, it 
often seems to them that they are faring ill. 
God's hand appears to be gone out against 
them. Yet perhaps they never fare better than
when under these circumstances of trouble,
sorrow, and affliction.
These things wean them from the world. 

If their heart and affections were going out 
after idols—they instrumentally bring them back. 

If they were hewing out broken cisterns 
—they dash them all to pieces. 

If they were setting up, and bowing down to 
idols in the chambers of imagery, affliction 
and trouble smite them to pieces before their
eyes—take away their gods—and leave them 
no refuge but the Lord God of hosts. 

So that when a child of God thinks he is faring very 
ill, because burdened with sorrows, temptations, 
and afflictions—he is never faring so well. The darkest 
clouds in due time will break, the most puzzling 
enigmas will sooner or later be unriddled by the 
blessed Spirit interpreting them—and the darkest 
providences cleared up—and we shall see that God 
is in them all—leading and guiding us by the right 
way, that we may go to a city of habitation.

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