The Reality of Pain
Pain is a reality that we all face in this world. There are many sources and faces to pain. The list is endless: loss of life, circumstances beyond our control, financial hardship, family tensions and hidden sins. Pain is an equal opportunity issue that finds everyone eventually and some of us many times over.
I’ve been thinking about how many times throughout scripture that God uses pain to accomplish His mission and train the vessels He will use to accomplish them. Abraham had a promise to be the father of a great nation and held fast to this promise for 25 long years. David was anointed king but it took years of flight and fight to finally claim his throne. David’s sins of adultery and murder were revealed later with a prophet’s rebuke which ultimately shows the Lord’s gracious work of cleansing. Noah builds a huge boat on dry ground waiting 120 years for the flood to come. These are only three examples of an endless list of people that endured through painful situations to see God’s will come to pass. Consider Joshua, Elijah, Daniel, Peter and the other disciples.
A.W. Tozer says this in his book The Root of Righteousness, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” In the Lord’s great love for us, he allows things in our lives to form us into the people He has created us to be. It is a clear pattern throughout Biblical history and how the Lord works with people. God humbles us before He takes us to our next level and before He uses us in a greater way.
I can almost hear people saying, “Well, I thought the Lord was good?” Yes, He is absolutely good, loving, and faithful in all His ways. In fact, He is so good to us that He keeps the greater picture of our calling in mind as He is answering the prayers we are praying for His will to be done in our lives. Pain and adversity is a way that the Lord can train us and expand the wineskins of our lives. You could call it growing pain. Thomas Carlyle says, “Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.”
Pain can be self-inflicted or a demonically energized assignment against your life. The Lord knows how to turn around what the enemy meant for evil, for good (Genesis 50:20). Pain is a part of progress. Anything that grows will experience some pain. If we avoid pain or refuse to deal with pain, we will not grow and fulfill God’s great call over our lives.
This is an incredibly personal post for me. As I reflect on the short 18 years that I have walked with the Lord, I am reminded of the numerous painful events my family and I have experienced from betrayal, promises not yet fulfilled, public misrepresentation, email campaigns, to death threats, and financial hardship. All of them the Lord has used to grow me and build me as His son. I know many of you have seen and experienced so much more than I have. I have good news! The Lord is growing you and I into the vessels that will house His glory in greater measure in these latter days (Ephesians 2:22). Don’t give up doing good (Galatians 6:9) but press in because pain is worth the progress. I leave you with this: For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17–18). Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules (2 Timothy 2:3–5).