Classic Devotional

He is not happy at the time! No one enjoys having troubles, sufferings, sorrows. Therefore this verse appears very strange to some people. They cannot understand it. It is contrary to all their thoughts of happiness. Of course, the word happy is not used here in the world's sense. In the world's estimation, "happiness is the pleasure that comes from the things that happen. It depends on personal comfort, on prosperous circumstances, on kindly and congenial conditions. When these are taken away the happiness is destroyed."

But the word here means blessed; and the statement is, that blessing comes to him who receives God's correction. To correct is to set right that which has been wrong. Surely if a man is going in the wrong way, and God turns his feet back and sets him in the right way, a blessing has come to him. Afflictions are God's corrections. They come with a purpose of love in them. They are hard to accept—but afterward the blessing is revealed. "No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." —Hebrews 12:11

Courtesy of Grace Gems! Used by permission.