Fruitful in Affliction

**Sit quietly, eyes closed, for one minute before reading.**
    Affliction. I don’t know about you, but I tend to want to either run from affliction or get rid of affliction. I do not like it, I do not want it and I do not pray for it. Run from or get rid of. That is what I do.
    Yet, affliction comes. Affliction comes in various forms, at various times and for various lengths of time. Joseph was intimately acquainted with affliction. He names his second-born son “Ephraim” (Genesis 41:52) which means, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction".
    Ephraim's name acknowledges the truth of God’s actions. Joseph lived a life of affliction. Various forms, at various times and for various lengths of time. Yet he got to a point in life when he could say “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction”. What a gift to get to that place!!
    So many of us are in the midst of affliction. In the midst of affliction we cannot see fruit. Even if we can see any fruit we still wonder if it is worth it. In the midst of affliction it is sometimes all we can do to simply speak, “God is good, God is sovereign”. We speak it because it is true and because it is our prayer - we struggle to believe.
    My prayer is this, that we would have to joy of being able to say that God has made us fruitful in our lands of affliction. Just to be able to say it. In saying it, praying it and repeating it, may our faith grow stronger to believe that God is good, He is sovereign and He redeems, bringing fruit whether we get to see it or not.
**Sit in silence again for as long as is available to you.**