Why Pain?
How God Uses Pain
“I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things” (Isa 45:7).
God will use pain in order to create a love relationship with HiM.
*Consider that God allowed Jesus to experience incredible pain in order to create an opportunity to have a relationship with US- His creation.
* Consider how Jesus created a relationship with Paul. He blinded him and used a crisis in his life in order to bring him into a relationship with him and use him for God’s purposes.
*Consider how God recruited Jonah for the mission He had for him.
These are not God’s first choice’s for His creation. Romans 2:4 reveals that God’s preference is to show mercy and kindness: “Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”
The problem is there are few people who respond to the goodness of God.
***God loves people more than He loves their comfort.****
* God invests a great deal into mankind. * God desires relationship with us and will go to great lengths to create such a relationship in order for us to receive the rewards and inheritance He has for us.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5
This is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible related to gaining wisdom and direction from God.
*The first part is pretty easy; we are to trust with all our heart.
* But the next part is not so clear. We are not to lean on our own understanding. If we are not to lean on our own understanding, on whose understanding are we to lean? God’s!
There seems to be a process in the scriptures in working with people that I have noticed over the years.
Three distinct stages.
*First, we live based on convenience. Our obedience is largely based on circumstances in our lives. We choose to obey based on the circumstances.
Psalms 27:14 Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.
**The second stage is the crisis stage. God allows a crisis to come into our lives. We are motivated to obey God in order to get out of the PAIN of our situation.
Many times God allows us to stay in this condition in order to demonstrate His love and faithfulness during our pain. Gradually, we discover something new about God and often have a personal encounter with Him that changes us.
Our very nature is affected by this God-encounter.
Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
***Third phase that is a relationship that is motivated now by love and devotion instead of pain.
This is where God desires us to be. Another way of saying this is we are no longer seeking His hand.
We are seeking Him. We want to know God personally.(RELATIONSHIP)
Hebrews 5: 8 Though he was God’s Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, JUST as we do.
*Obedience will NOT last when the motivation is only the removal of our pain.
* Obedience only LASTS when the motivation is loving devotion.
We are told in Jeremiah 17:9a, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”
So what really protects each of us from the deceit of our own heart? I believe it is when we get to a place with God that our decisions are accountable to others, whether that be a wife, a board, or a few close friends who are committed to the SAME godly ideals, this is when we are protected from the deceit of our own heart.
This is one of the hardest things to yield to God-the right to make our own decisions.
Yet, it is the most elementary principle God requires of us to receive His blessing in our lives.
This principle took a long time for me to appreciate. However, today I can tell you I would never make a major decision without the counsel of others who are close to me.
Relational accountability has become lost in our culture due to our hunger for independence.(I can do it MY way)
I have experienced too often the hardship that results from making decisions that God isn’t behind.
Walking in obedience is the only real freedom in Christ.
Deut. 5:29 What I wouldn’t give if they’d always feel this way, continuing to revere me and always keep all my commands; they’d have a good life forever, they and their children!
Where are you in your obedience and what is the primary motivation?
If it isn’t love, why not tell the Lord you love Him today and want to know Him for who HE IS and NOT for what He can do for you and me.
Lord we pray that we continue to be Your instruments of transformation. We declare Your Word from Romans 12:1-2:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the RENEWING of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Thank you Lord that we are no longer conforming to the world’s patterns and that we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds for Your perfect will for our lives.
2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
1 JN 5:11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
AMEN