{"id":328,"date":"2006-08-19T15:21:04","date_gmt":"2006-08-19T12:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/2006\/08\/19\/why-me\/"},"modified":"2006-08-19T15:21:04","modified_gmt":"2006-08-19T12:21:04","slug":"why-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/19\/why-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oh! but <strong>my <\/strong>afflictions are greater than other men&#8217;s  afflictions are!<strong> Oh! there is no affliction like my affliction!<\/strong> How  can I not murmur?<\/p>\n<p>It may be your <strong>sins <\/strong>are greater than other  men&#8217;s sins. If you have sinned against&#8230;<br \/>\nmore light,<br \/>\nmore  love,<br \/>\nmore mercies,<br \/>\nmore promises,<br \/>\nthan others&#8211;no wonder if your  afflictions are greater than others! If this be your case, you have more  cause to be mute than to murmur!<\/p>\n<p>It may be that the Lord sees that it is  very <strong>needful <\/strong>that your afflictions should be greater than others.<\/p>\n<p>It may be your heart is <strong>harder <\/strong>than other men&#8217;s hearts, and  <strong>prouder <\/strong>and <strong>stouter <\/strong>than other men&#8217;s hearts, it may be your  heart is more <strong>impure <\/strong>than others, and more <strong>carnal <\/strong>than others,  or else more <strong>selfish<\/strong> and more <strong>worldly <\/strong>than others, or else  more <strong>deceitful <\/strong>and more <strong>hypocritical <\/strong>than others, or else  more <strong>cold <\/strong>and <strong>careless <\/strong>than others, or more<br \/>\n<strong>formal <\/strong>and  <strong>lukewarm <\/strong>than others.<\/p>\n<p>Now, if this is your case, certainly God  sees it very <strong>necessary<\/strong>, for&#8230;<br \/>\nthe breaking of your <strong>hard  <\/strong>heart, and<br \/>\nthe humbling of your <strong>proud <\/strong>heart, and<br \/>\nthe  cleansing of your <strong>foul <\/strong>heart, and<br \/>\nthe spiritualizing of your  <strong>carnal <\/strong>heart, etc.,<br \/>\nthat your afflictions should be greater than others; and therefore do not murmur!<\/p>\n<p>Where the <strong>disease <\/strong>is  strong, the <strong>remedy<\/strong> must be strong&#8211;else the cure will never be  wrought! God is a wise physician, and He would never give strong  medicine&#8211;if a weaker one could effect the cure!<\/p>\n<p>The more <strong>rusty  <\/strong>the NAIL is, the oftener we put it into the fire to purify it; and the  more <strong>crooked <\/strong>it is, the more blows and the harder blows we give to straighten it.<\/p>\n<p>You have been long  a-gathering rust; and therefore, if God deal thus with you, you  have no cause to complain.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;For the Lord disciplines the one He  loves, and punishes every son whom He receives.&#8221;<\/em> Heb. 12:6<\/p>\n<p>From &#8220;The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod&#8221; or, &#8220;The  Silent Soul with Sovereign Antidotes&#8221; by Thomas Brooks, 1659,  London, via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gracegems.org\">GraceGems<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oh! but my afflictions are greater than other men&#8217;s afflictions are! Oh! there is no affliction like my affliction! How can I not murmur? It may be your sins are greater than other men&#8217;s sins. If you have sinned against&#8230; more light, more love, more mercies, more promises, than others&#8211;no wonder if your afflictions are\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/19\/why-me\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}