When We Hurt
Psalm 71: 20-21 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again. (NIV)
The Christian walk is rarely a leisurely stroll. There are many hills and valleys; mountaintops and deserts. For even though we are saved and possess the gift of eternal life, we still have to navigate this one. And this life is set in a world that is moving on, eroding daily, and eventually will pass away. The events we see every day leave us no doubt that these are the end days the Bible prophesied about so often.
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. Matthew 24: 12-13 (NIV)
We read the papers and watch the news. We see the signs of the times. Yet we are still called to stand firm in our faith. During this walk however we will experience times of great sorrow and hurt. Sometimes we feel forced in the western church to walk around with masks on. Someone asks how we are doing and we feel compelled to answer, "Blessed and highly favored!" And we are blessed. And we are highly favored. But we also hurt and sometimes more deeply than we want to admit. The world relates admission of pain to weakness and we buy into that lie too often. The Apostle Paul once shared about a personal pain that he suffered from. He called it a thorn in his flesh. Preceding this admission was Paul relating a story about how God had shown him great things:
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 2Corithians 12: 2-4 (NIV)
God showed him the third heaven, paradise itself. Things no man is supposed to be allowed to see. God used Paul mightily in his walk. Likewise, He desires to use us as well for His glory and for our betterment. But there is a danger in being used mightily:
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 2Corinthians 12: 7 (NIV)
The danger is pride. The most basic human reaction to anything positive in this life is to start to think more of yourself because of it. When that happens the principle that kicks in is simple the more you think of yourself, the less you think of God. You cannot avoid it. We do not know what this thorn was for Paul. Some speculate it was a physical ailment of some kind. Others think that he was tortured by the memories of how he had once persecuted the church that he served now. Perhaps he could never get the picture of Stephen, the first martyr, out of his mind. Watching over and over again as he was stoned to death, with Paul (who was then Saul) standing in approval. Whatever it was, it was obviously causing him great pain.
We too will experience great pain in our walk. We are wise to realize that this is especially true whenever the Lord is about to move mightily in our lives. We can expect some period of trial. Perhaps God is preparing you for a new ministry, a new level of closeness in your devotion to Him, or a new opportunity to serve Him on a deeper plane. Remember that God always has a higher level for you to go to. But too often we become satisfied with the status quo and stop seeking Him as diligently as we should. But like a plant is pruned to encourage greater growth, so God will prune us as well. The refining process for gold and silver is to remove the impurities that prevent it from being as pure as it could be. God will always seek to refine further what He needs to use.
You may be wondering how the pain accomplishes this. Let us return to the Apostle Paul:
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Corinthians 12: 8-10
We too may be pleading for the Lord to take away the pain we are experiencing. We too may be begging for Him to end the sorrow. The words God spoke to the Apostle Paul, He speaks to us all today if we are willing to listen. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." There are two parts to this that we need to internalize in order to not only survive the pain but to thrive in it. The world only teaches how to cope with pain and they do not even do that very well. God doesn't want you to learn how to cope with it. He wants you to understand why it is there so you can become better because of it!
The first part seems simple enough. The grace of God is sufficient for us. Grace is the completely unmerited favor of God. We deserved death for our sinful state yet God granted us His grace. If the grace of God can save us from an eternity of pain and suffering, how can it not be sufficient for whatever trial or pain we might be experiencing in this life? God is not a mean God. The world portrays Him as a grumpy old man living in the clouds hurling lightening blots down upon us in disapproval. This is the reality of the God we serve:
You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56: 8 (NLT)
The tears you cry today are not only seen by God but He collects them! He will not waste a single tear that falls from our despair. That is why His grace is sufficient. We always want to find the way out of the painful situations of our lives. We want to find the escape route. The grace of God however wants us to find the way through. The way out will not result in any growth. The way through will. The problem is that we do not rely upon the grace God has shown us nearly enough. We rely upon our own understanding. We see a failed relationship as a tragedy while God's grace may have just saved you from a failed marriage, or worse. We see a job lay off as a tragedy while God's grace may be preparing you for a new door to be opened in your life. When we rely upon our feelings we are relying upon a temporal perspective. When we rely upon the grace of God we rely upon an eternal perspective.
