Psalm 119:71 - Christians

[Bishka]

What does this mean to you?

"I have been afflicted; that I might learn."

I'd like all opinions on the interpretation of this scripture

 

[dawny0826]

God is AWESOME. And I think when we have faith in Him...we will be strengthened through our hardships. My struggles edify me and bring me closer to God. It's not always easy to seee that right away but He promises NEVER to give us more than we can handle...therefore, what we are given CAN help us to grow stronger in our Faith.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

God is AWESOME. And I think when we have faith in Him...we will be strengthened through our hardships. My struggles edify me and bring me closer to God. It's not always easy to seee that right away but He promises NEVER to give us more than we can handle...therefore, what we are given CAN help us to grow stronger in our Faith.

That's a very good answer.

Terry_______________________
Amen! Truly I say to you: Gather in my name. I am with you.

 

[sojourner]

We in the first world have devised a whole industry whose sole purpose is to keep us from suffering. We have it in our heads that we're not supposed to suffer -- that suffering is a sign that we're somehow...flawed.

But I believe that God is most present to us when we suffer, and God stands in solidarity with us in our suffering.

 

[spookboy0]

What does this mean to you?

"I have been afflicted; that I might learn."

I'd like all opinions on the interpretation of this scripture

I think it means that if you're ignorant in something, and you show your ignorance, people will correct you and then you'll learn from your mistake(s).

It reminds me of a line from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, which reads as follows: "If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn."

 

[shema]

I believe that Most of us have a very humanistic nature, and if we were to never be afflicted or have any problems, then we would have no reason to thank God. However if we learn to praise God 1.in the misdst of our problems and 2.even when we dont have problems, then our character will have matured. So I think that whomever wrote this psalm was thanking God for building their character

 

[Scuba Pete]

II Corinthians 12:7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. NIV

This perhaps will shed some light on the subject at hand.

 

[onmybelief]

I think it means our hardships define who we are as an individual.

I heard a story a few months ago about a man who was fascinated with nature and its beauty. One day while walking a trail he happened upon a cocoon that when ready would turn into a butterfly. He took it home and nurtured it. Then after long waiting he saw it start to open. He saw that it was having 'trouble'. So he took a pair of scissors and cut an o so tiny hole at he bottom, large enough to help the butterfly out of teh cocoon. Then it did come out. However the wings seemed to be deformed. Well, there's something that happens within the wings when it is ready emerge. The forcing of itself out also forces some sort of fluid in to the wings that helps them develop properly. Since the hole was cut in the bottom it did not need to be forced out therefore there was no liquid to help the wings develop. Instead of spending its life free and in nature it spends its time trapped in a cage.

So sometimes having hardships can help us grow and learn.

 

[Squirt]

What does this mean to you?

"I have been afflicted; that I might learn."

I'd like all opinions on the interpretation of this scripture

To me it means that God has a purpose in testing me, and that it is by the "refiner's fire" that I can become strong.

It also reminds me of something I read once: Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity! :biglaugh:

 

[Aqualung]

It also reminds me of something I read once: Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity! :biglaugh:

That is an awesome description! All the time I hear people say stuff like, "God shouldn't have allowed this to happen" and you described them perfectly.

 

[Bruce A. Dagle]

A relationship with God through Jesus Christ is one of a back-and-forth communication. If you ask God to show you something, he will not only tell you the answer, as in an opinion that you can podner, He will make you to know, to feel and to even many times experience the answer. The result is that you will "know" the answer, God will pass along the knowing of the thing to you in the depth that He knows it, at least to the point that we can stand, since this "knowing" is often most stressful and full of longsuffering, but at the end of the thing you will know, as God knows, pertaining to this thing you want and ask to understand. This is how Paul can say you are filled with all knowledge, he qualifies this by saying you are filled with the Spirit, enriched by Him (I Cor 1:5) Thus, it is not that we know everything but that we have access to knowledge of all things from Him and when we want to know something, He really makes us know it, this is both good and ofter painful.