The Lord's Purpose

In this connection it has occurred to me that the people of God rarely seek for, or even think of, the Lord's purpose in permitting affliction to fall on them. His purpose may be preventive as with Paul's thorn in the flesh or productive as in John 15, as well as corrective. Sometimes the saints of God suffer needless trials, diseases, and hastening of death, because of their ignoring one of the very plainest and one of the most practical lessons taught in the Word of God. It is certain that if we believed and acted upon the simple fact stated in James 5:11, we would in every trial and trouble of whatever nature, ask and diligently seek to learn, not how we can escape the trial, but what purpose does the Lord wish to accomplish by means of it? The end of the Lord is "for our good always." (Deut. 6:24.) His chastenings are invariably for our "profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." No lesson of Scripture is more plainly taught than that, but how often do the people of God act in accordance with it? And who can say how much they lose through slighting and ignoring it?