pain.

Today's Reading:
But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.--Job 2:10

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us. --2 Corinthians 1:3-7

What I Think:
So, obviously if you read last Monday's reading, you remember that my Monday night worship has been focusing on the book of Job. Today, we talked about the problem with pain. Why are we so turned away from pain and suffering? Is it because of the sense of entitlement that most Americans hold to today? Its as if we believe that since we're Christians it will all be easy. Well, its the exact opposite. He never promised it would be easy, only that he would never give us more than we could handle and he'd be there all the way.God gives us the gift of pain to help us. Trials bring us closer to him,closer to godliness. I want to discuss three main points we talked about tonight.

First, pain is a gift that help us realize there is a problem. The point of life is not for it to be comfortable or fun. The point of life is godliness and living for the Lord. Romans 5:3-5 reads, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." As you can see, problems only bring us closer to God. They make us rely on him. Its as if we have a spiritual pacifier. When life goes bad, we depend on it to make us happy. We lean on the crutch. Its time to get off the crutch (even though it might hurt a little, put us out of our comfort zone a little) and depend/trust in the Lord Jesus.

Secondly, Pain helps us be able to comfort others. In the verse from Corinthians in the reading, it talks about how when we go through troubles, we can later turn around and help someone else who is in need. God did it and we can too. One example that was given in the sermon was about a mother eagle in Africa (I don't know, they might do it over here too). When the mother eagle thinks its time for her baby birdies to learn how to fly, she scoops them up in her wings and fly them miles high in the air. Then, she drops them. They squirm and cause a rucus, thinking there mom is crazy. Little do they know, she hovers above them and in the last couple hundred feet, flys down to scoop them up before they are hurt. Then, she repeats the process until the learn how to fly. This is like out spiritual walk. I mean, we're all Christians when life is good. Its easy then. But, this faith isn't real. You have no reason to depend on God, you think you can do it yourself. Then, smack, your head hits the pavement, you feel like you were slapped across the face. You lean towards God. Your faith is strengthened.

Last, Pain helps us understand pleasure. You know how when you go for a really long time without something, when you finally get it it seems hundreds of times better? This is what I mean. The measure of pleasure is only to the degree you have experienced pain. The key to joy is learning to appreciate pain in the light of God's greatness. Pain is a gift from a loving father that is saying to you, "I have so much more planned for you than you could ever imagine." All it takes to get there is pain, which leads to discipline, and rebuking from the Lord. (Hebrews 12:1-13...check it out!). Focus your eyes on Jesus. Jesus has already experienced so much pain for us, he died on the cross, he willingly submitted himself to public condemnation, why can't we suffer slightly for him? He did it for us more than he will EVER ask us to do for him.

In A Nutshell:Pain can be one of God's greatest gifts if we just look at it in the right perspective.