Keeping the Heart in Adversity

Wisdom from John Flavel

Of the many glorious blessings in the Christian life, one of the foremost is being joined to the body of Christ. When we are saved, we are not saved to a life of isolation; we are saved into a body, into a family, into a household whose lineage stretches across the ages.

Consequently, we have a rich history to learn from and be shaped by. There is no need for each generation to reinvent the wheel or begin laying anew the foundation of the house. We can simply sit down with some distant aunt or uncle at the family table and glean from them wisdom for the present.

For that reason, I thought it would be helpful to take a detour from our usual course and introduce you to one of these old curmudgeons in the family tree, John Flavel. Flavel was one of the 17th-century English Puritans and his writing has been a much-needed source of encouragement to countless Christians in the centuries succeeding his life. This is an excerpt from his little book Keeping the Heart, a meditation on Proverbs 4:23.

I pray you find it helpful. Enjoy.

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“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)

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.

Oh 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…’

‘But he for our profit…’

‘All things work together for good…’

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.’