Yes, we pray for them, yes we intercede, but long and short, we still have difficulty navigating life when pain is a constant companion.
It helps to know that Jesus takes our pains and sufferings on himself. Still, there is no denying the truth of the situation when you are hurting, "I HURT".
That has the potential of driving a wedge. Which side we end up on is the issue. One side is clinging to the settled payment for our pain, the cross of Christ, the healing that is the Fathers Bread, the understanding that this too will pass.
The other side of the wedge is resentment, faith deteriorating, anger, distance, removal from intimacy with Jesus. The pain causes us to step away, not toward. That's not condemnation, it's a fact of life.
Only when we are face to face with the very end of our life do we often run spiritually to HIM. Not deathbed conversions, recognition that HE is all there is.
There is no other hope, no other solace, no other way than that.
I asked the Father this morning.. here's the impression I got:
"Even when you think you are far from me, that you have drifted, I am not far from you. I said I would never leave or forsake you, and I haven't changed. I am the unchanging God who created everything you see, feel or touch. Your pain and suffering is not without my attention. Some is an attack of the enemy of your soul and some is because it is appointed unto man... Yet I will be there waiting when you return to me and I will refresh you like the spring rain. Your pain is temporary, I am eternal. Don't lose hope, don't give up, focus on eternal things and not the temporal. It's where I live.. in eternity."
2 comments:
I have been debating whether or not to reveal this but here it is.
I have been dealing with chronic pain for many years.. In 1997 I had a myelogram prior to a scheduled neck surgery. The spinal injection induced bacterial spinal meningitis that sent me into a coma within 12 hours of the procedure. I woke up 3 days later and spent 9+ days in the hospital. At that time I could hardly walk on my own power, feeling sick with no energy.
I recovered enough to have the neck surgery about 3-4 months later. To be brief, that surgery was a total disaster that caused me head and shoulder pain enough that I couldn't work anymore (though I tried).
The reason I told this is because if I didn't have the Lord in my life I would be a totally different person. Where would the light be? Maybe this will encourage someone else.
Though I have some miserable days my sole is never miserable. It is the love of God that is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit that keeps me in peace.
Though I feel uncomfortable, become frustrated and get irritable I do not let it own me. I was bought and paid for and He keeps me from going into darkness.
I feel that I may have treated this a little too lightly. There are people who suffer with much more pain than I do and some are even stuck in a bed. That is a whole different situation than what I am in. When I wrote it, it did not come out right...."my soul never is miserable." Should have said that my spirit instead of soul. My mind, will and emotions are affected by the pain.
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