In Affliction and Trial

Selected excerpts from Abiding in Christ

By Andrew Murray

Every branch that bears fruit He prunes,

That it may bear more fruit.

John 15:2

“In each affliction we need to hear the voice of a messenger that encourages us to abide even closer...  Abide in Christ!  This is the Father’s object in sending the trial...  Through suffering the Father leads us to enter more deeply into the love of Christ.  It is an unspeakable  mercy that the Father comes with His affliction and makes the world around us dark and unattractive.  This leads us to feel more deeply our sinfulness, and for a time we lose our joy in what was becoming so threatening to our spiritual life.

Pray for grace to see in every trouble, small or great, the Father pointing you to Jesus and saying, “Abide in Him.”  Abide in Christ; in this way you will become particular of all the rich blessings God designed for you in the affliction… Your assurance of His unchangeable love will become stronger...the love in which, as sympathizing High Priest, He descended into all your sorrows.  Abide in Christ; for by conforming to your blessed Lord in His sufferings, a deeper experience of the reality and the tenderness of His love will be yours.

Say that now you have but one object in life: making known and conveying His wonderful love to others.  You will learn the art of forgetting self, and, even in affliction, using this separation from ordinary life to plead for the welfare of others.  When you see affliction coming, meet it in Christ; when it has come, feel that you are more in Christ that in the affliction, for He is closer to you than affliction can ever be; and when it is passing, still abide in Him.  Let the one thought of the Savior...become your time of choicest blessing...that He and you belong entirely to each other...that you are more completely satisfied with Him and more wholly given up to Him than ever before.

Delight yourself in the assurance that closer union with Him and more abundant fruit through Him are sure to be the results of trial.