We are continuing our devotionals through John Flavel’s book, Keeping the Heart. We have just finished season 1 on how to keep the heart in times of prosperity. By way of review, keeping the heart refers to the following: Our whole will and understanding is to be loyally conformed and directed to God according to His commandments and Word, which manifests itself in every decision we make. This entails not being merely externally obedient to all that God commands in the Bible, but being internally obedient to His commandments, which the Bible teaches is the only way we can love God. God empowers believers to do this by His Spirit, as we diligently study, submit to, and apply His Word regularly to our lives. The heart itself is not the seat of the emotions, but describes our decision-making, will, and understanding. It refers to our whole orientation towards something (whether God or an idol), which then manifests itself through all the decisions of our lives by what controls and shapes our understanding, and what we seek with our will. That is what the Bible means by the heart, and keeping the heart refers to the italicized above.
Season 2 is in some ways the opposite of prosperity, in that such a season is when God withholds, for His own good purpose, material things, health, and other parts of His general providence. So, while season 1 was about when we have an abundance of food, health, and general prosperity, season 2 is about when those things are lacking. Yet, just as times of general prosperity do not always mean that God is happy with our conduct (far too often, prosperity can be more of a snare to believers), so times of adversity do not necessarily mean He is unhappy with us. In fact, we should get that false contrast out of our heads. God can often send judgement upon the wicked by giving them riches, and blessings upon the saints by removing them. So, God’s blessing is of a different standard than the common human understanding. Flavel describes season 2:
The second season in the life of a Christian, requiring more than common diligence to keep his heart, is the time of adversity. When Providence frowns upon you, and blasts your outward comforts, then look to your heart; keep it with all diligence from repining against God, or fainting under his hand; for troubles, though sanctified, are troubles still. Jonah was a good man, and yet how fretful was his heart under affliction! Job was the mirror of patience, yet how was his heart discomposed by trouble! You will find it hard to get a composed spirit under great afflictions. O the hurries and tumults which they occasion even in the best hearts!—Let me show you, then, how a Christian under great afflictions may keep his heart from repining or desponding, under the hand of God.
I will here offer several helps to keep the heart in this condition.
1.) By these cross providences God is faithfully pursuing the great design of electing love upon the souls of his people, and orders all these afflictions as means sanctified to that end. Afflictions come not by casualty, but by counsel. By this counsel of God they are ordained as means of much spiritual good to saints. “By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged,” &c. “But he for our profit,” &c. “All things work together for good,” &c. They are God’s workmen upon our hearts, to pull down the pride and carnal security of them; and being so, their nature is changed; they are turned into blessings and benefits. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted,” says David. Surely then thou hast no reason to quarrel with God, but rather to wonder that he should concern himself so much in thy good as to use any means for accomplishing it. Paul could bless God if by any means he might attain the resurrection of the dead. “My brethren,” says James, “count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.” ‘My Father is about a design of love upon my soul, and do I well to be angry with him? All that he does is in pursuance of, and in reference to some eternal, glorious ends upon my soul. It is my ignorance of God’s design that makes me quarrel with him.’ He says to thee in this case, as he did to Peter, “What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.”
Through the cross of Christ, believers have God’s promise of providence: not a providence of riches or prosperity, as if that were God’s chief aim in us, but providence towards the end of making us holy and loyal to Him. Yes, when we discover how vastly superior this end is to mere material wealth and prosperity in the world, we would desire nothing more! Prosperity by this world’s standards is passing away, and so are those who seek after such things rather than after God. In contrast, the providence promised to believers is such that we invest in eternal riches through loving obedience to God from the heart. Such riches are rooted in the essence of who and what God is, and are of inestimable value. So, all affliction in the life of the believer is an act of God’s supreme grace and providence, serving to wrest our idols from our hands and turn our heads to the Father for every good thing. And what is the result? We are not swept away with the rest of the world when it perishes, and we are changed to love God and embody spiritual riches in holiness. We are changed to become as Christ, which is the best thing that can ever happen to a person, far beyond any other blessing God can ever bestow upon us. We are saved! We will have an eternity with Christ! And we are already being made to fit that station. This blessing is so much greater than we can ever imagine, and it should lead us to doxology and praise, whether in prosperity or in affliction. The proverb is certainly true of God in the first, and the world in the second: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Prov. 27:6 ESV). God will do whatever it takes to make us holy, and the enemy to make us corrupt. Praise God in your adversity! Be open to His shaping, seeking always to rid yourself of idols.
2.) Though God has reserved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people, yet he has tied up his own hands by promise never to take away his loving kindness from them. Can I contemplate this scripture with a repining, discontented spirit: “I will be his Father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of man, and with the stripes of the children of men: nevertheless my mercy shall not depart away from him.” O my heart, my haughty heart! dost thou well to be discontent, when God has given thee the whole tree, with all the clusters of comfort growing on it, because he suffers the wind to blow down a few leaves? Christians have two kinds of goods, the goods of the throne and the goods of the footstool: immoveables and moveables. If God has secured those, never let my heart be troubled at the loss of these: indeed, if he had cut off his love, or discovenanted my soul, I had reason to be cast down; but this he hath not done, nor can he do it.
Just as a parent lovingly disciplines a child to save them from death and evil, so God uses affliction and hardship to turn them from death to life. Just as a parent is to use spanking as a tool of loving discipleship, not out of anger but to aid them in holiness, so God uses the rod of man, and whatever means at His disposal, to demonstrate the love of a Father that will never leave us. Proverbs 13:24 is perfectly applicable here: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” Yes, just as God lovingly mandated corporal discipline for the good of the child (“in the Lord,” and not according to the whims of the parent, as parents are His stewards for the care of His children), so He disciplines us with consistency. For what kind of parent does not lovingly spank his own child when he needs it? Hebrews 12:8 says, “But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (KJV). Just as a parent’s discipline of their child affirms ownership for God and love over them, so does the Father’s careful sending of affliction show that we are truly His children. And the Father is one who will never disown His children any more than He would disown Christ. His love is secure! It will never depart! Thus, we can know with absolute certainty that every bit of hardship and affliction that comes is a blessing from God. It can be nothing but a blessing!
3.) It is of great efficacy to keep the heart from sinking under afflictions, to call to mind that thine own Father has the ordering of them. Not a creature moves hand or tongue against thee but by his permission. Suppose the cup be bitter, yet it is the cup which thy Father hath given thee; and canst thou suspect poison to be in it? Foolish man, put home the case to thine own heart; canst thou give thy child that which would ruin him? No! thou wouldst as soon hurt thyself as him. “If thou then, being evil, knowest how to give good gifts to thy children,” how much more does God! The very consideration of his nature as a God of love, pity, and tender mercies; or of his relation to thee as a father, husband, friend, may be security enough, if he had not spoken a word to quiet thee in this case; and yet you have his word too, by the prophet Jeremiah: “I will do you no hurt.” You lie too near his heart for him to hurt you; nothing grieves him more than your groundless and unworthy suspicions of his designs. Would it not grieve a faithful, tender-hearted physician, when he had studied the case of his patient, and prepared the most excellent medicines to save his life, to hear him cry out, ‘O he has undone me! he has poisoned me!’ because it pains him in the operation? O when will you be ingenuous?
God will do nothing to us that is out of character with His being our heavenly Father. He knows what is best for us, and, as our Father, he orders all things to raise us. Think of the child who desires nothing but junk food, or perhaps to do some dangerous thing. Such a child seldom knows the consequences of his actions in any way comparable to his father. So, when the father steps in to protect and train the child, the child may see the father as trying to end his fun, or taking away something that he needs. Yet, seldom does the child know of the danger that such things can bring to him! The Father, like a loving parent, knows in a way that is well beyond the child. In fact, God’s knows perfectly: He knows us perfectly, he knows perfectly what we ought to be, and He knows perfectly how to shape us to be that way. Yet, for the child, such things are often quite unpleasant, forcing the child to either trust in the Father (that the parent knows what is best) or to rebel (leading to their harm and greater chastisement from the loving Father).
Keeping the heart in the season of adversity looks like trusting in our loving Father: that, through His designs, which are perfectly under His control, He is orchestrating all things for our good. That is our confidence, regardless of what God brings into our lives. It is for our good. He, as our perfect Father, knows what is best far beyond what we can ever imagine or hope for. Therefore, keep your heart firmly fixed upon Him at all times! We have no possible reason that can ever be conceived for shifting our hearts to something else. He alone fulfills our needs and He alone knows what is best for us. So, trust in Him always.
Next time we will be looking at helps 4-6 for those in the season of adversity.