Afterward

 

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

—Hebrews 12:11 NKJV

No one wants to wait until “afterwards.” When we go through trials of all kinds, we want God to remove the pain and give us the results He has designed for us. Yet, no one would expect a surgeon to allow a person to get up during a surgical procedure and enjoy the results. The child must take the sting of the antiseptic before he can experience the healing.

We have ample illustrations of this point in the lives of biblical characters. In the case of poor Jonah, who ended up in the belly of the fish because of his disobedience, even after he confessed his sin and repented, he had to go through the process of being vomited out upon the beach! Only then did he respond obediently to God’s call.

In John 11, Lazarus went through death and decay in the grave. His family had to go through the associated grieving. Only after this trial did Jesus come and speak those words to his dead friend in the tomb, “Lazarus, come out!”

As recorded in 1 Kings 19, Elijah went through a terrible wind storm, an earthquake, and a fire before he heard the gentle whisper of God. Only then did he hear the words of direction and relief he had waited for from his Lord.

Job experienced unbelievable loss, lived through pain, grief, the misunderstanding of his friends, and his own crisis of faith. Yet, when God finally did speak to Job and bring his trials to an end, Job replied, in Job 42:5:

My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

We don’t feel blessed while going through the deadly, mysterious, confusing storms of life. Afterward, if we persevere in faith and obedience, we can say with the psalmist, as recorded in Psalm 94:12-13:

Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord, the man you teach from your law; you grant him relief from days of trouble.

If the trial you experience seems more than you can bear, and if you see no good coming from it, even while you are still in the dark decide before God to trust Him to help you through and bring about the desired harvest in your life. There will be an afterwards. And, it will be joyous, peaceful, and light-filled.