Afflictions and Adversities: Benefits of
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1 Kings 8:33, 35, 47–53
When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading with You in this temple, / When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them, / and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’
Deuteronomy 4:30, 31
When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. / For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.
Deuteronomy 30:1, 2
“When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, / and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,
2 Chronicles 6:28–31
When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come, / then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple— / be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of men—
Job 5:6–11, 17
For distress does not spring from the dust, and trouble does not sprout from the ground. / Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward. / However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and lay my cause before Him—
Job 23:10
Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
Psalm 94:12, 13
Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD, and teach from Your law, / to grant him relief from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.
Proverbs 3:11, 12
My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD, and do not loathe His rebuke; / for the LORD disciplines the one He loves, as does a father the son in whom he delights.
Hebrews 12:5
And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.
Ecclesiastes 7:2, 3
It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart. / Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart.
Isaiah 19:20, 22
It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of Hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, He will send them a savior and defender to rescue them. / And the LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; He will strike them but heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and He will hear their prayers and heal them.
Isaiah 26:9
My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
Isaiah 27:9
Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
Jeremiah 2:27
say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’
Jeremiah 22:22, 23
The wind will drive away all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness. / O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.”
Jeremiah 31:19
After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
Lamentations 3:27, 28
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young. / Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him.
Ezekiel 20:37, 43
I will make you pass under the rod and will bring you into the bond of the covenant. / There you will remember your ways and all the deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evils you have done.
Ezekiel 6:9
Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.
Hosea 2:6, 7
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way. / She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’
Hosea 5:15
Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Romans 5:3, 4
Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; / perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Romans 8:17, 28
And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. / And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
2 Corinthians 4:17
For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
Philippians 1:12–14, 19
Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have actually served to advance the gospel. / As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. / And most of the brothers, confident in the Lord by my chains, now dare more greatly to speak the word without fear.
Hebrews 12:5
And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.
James 1:2–4, 12
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, / because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. / Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
1 Peter 1:7
so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 4:14
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.