Does pain drive you forward, or move you backwards? Because, I have had this question many times with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual pain.
Last night I could not sleep. I had sat in the wrong kind of chair at our friends Bible Study and my back was wrecked. I also have had a hard time with breathing when laying down lately. Cold weather and such. Anyways, as I cried and felt sorry for myself I told the Lord that “the pain always seemes to slow me down. It slowes me down from doing Your will.” Then, He told me “Really, I always thought it pushed you forward.”
Looking back on my life in that moment I wondered where I would be at, if never had pain. Would I be stagnant? What about boring? Would I have been willing to fight so hard for others? Would I be living the abundant life I am right now?
Luke 7:47 talks about the woman who was forgiven of much and because of this she loves God much. That brings up more questions. If she is forgiven of much sin, and that is what causes her to love God more, then does that include the sin that was inflicted on us, or even the sin we inflicted on ourselves? If it takes pain and forgiveness to cause great love for God in us, then is it the love of God that pushes us forward from that?
Take for example, just a made up one. I man who is crippled, whallowing in bitterness and self pitty. Then, another man who is crippled. But instead he is starting a nonprofit to help those who are in his position, but don’t have the medical blessings that he does.
So, pain can do one of two things. It can bring you down for a moment. Then from there, you learn to love God more. You are moving forward in doing His will, because you want to. Simply because you love Him more. Or, pain can keep you stuck. I know it did for me emotionally, for many years, because I did not want to let go of it.
An encouragement to the church as well is this. A man knows if he is in a wheel chair (spiritually speaking). He doesn’t need you to state the obvious. What he does need is encouragement and support. Words of life, not ones that tie him down. Dear Church, please hear me when I say this. A Christian does not need to hear he is believing lies. That is all they will focus on. Instead of stating the obvious, why don’t we bring truth to them? The truth of what God says of them. Because, when we point out what Satan is already telling us, we start to believe it more. Instead say, this is the truth of how God sees you and your situation.
I hope this blog made sense. It was more of a journal entry to help me think through what all of this looks like:
