There is much complaining and fretting among men nowadays over evil conditions prevailing in the world and in their lives, and yet there is but one misfortune that they ought to complain about, and that is - their sin. Sin separates between us and our God, the Giver of every good gift, and brings down upon us His just punishments. It is sin that makes the night of affliction so dark and our burden so heavy.

We often complain that we are poor in this world's goods, when we ought to complain against our covetous heart that will not be content with the food and raiment God provides. We murmur because we have no brilliant intellectual gifts, when we ought to murmur against the sinful pride living in our hearts. We fret over enemies we may have, over so many hardships and misfortunes that come upon us, when we ought to fret about our stubborn and perverse heart, which will not believe that all these things are sent upon us by the wise, merciful, and omnipotent God. In short, it is sin, our sin, that we ought to complain about more than about misfortunes and afflictions.

Therefore let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord when assailed by doubt and fear. Let us ever remember that it is the Lord who thus afflicts us because He would purge us from sin, which so easily besets us and would prove our destruction if He did not free us from its evil power. He knows our inmost hearts and sees what sinful desires still lurk in their secret folds, often unknown to ourselves. He therefore casts us into the fiery furnace of affliction that our faith be cleansed from all attaching dross and be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).

[devotion text by Rev. F. W. Herzberger (1920) -
from the Family Altar - CPH (1957 edition)]
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