And then comes FAITH. Pain and suffering can tear us down to our foundation. It can isolate us in a desolate place of despair. It can overwhelm us mentally and physically and position us to feel like we have no hope. Family and friends may let you down. Fitness may fail you. But where is your faith. Faith, I have found, is the on thing you can always stand on for strength.
Our world Is full of heartache and trials. We live in a world in which we are destined to face hardship, suffering and pain. John 16:33 tells us, in this world you will have trouble. That makes it pretty unmistakable. Look around you, it's everywhere. But this also means that opportunity to give grace to people in pain is everywhere also. My question is are you looking for opportunity is the trials or are you looking at despair.
Where do we draw strength in the face of suffering? I believe that my faith in Jesus Christ gives me strength in the shadows of trials. It gives me the ability to overcome pain and to learn that even when we suffer, we don't have to be miserable in our suffering. The Apostle Paul said that God gave him a thorn in his side. Most theologians believe this was a chronic pain.
In 2 Cor 12:7-10 Paul says,
"Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 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.” Do you notice that God didn't take away the pain. Even when Paul prayed and pleaded, God did not remove the pain. But he gave Paul the power in his grace to endure and overcome. It was through his faith in Christ and through the power of prayer that he was able to continue. He was able to make an incredible difference in the world. And oh what a difference he made. Paul was the poster boy for MOEO lifestyle!Even with the "thorn in his side", he changed the world.
You can be assured you will deal with pain in your life and it is up to you to decide how you are going to fight that pain. Are you going to use every resource you have to heal, to recover and to fight through the pain? Are you going to win the battle with suffering or are you going to sit back and suffer without fighting. Without FAITH you can be assured in your heart that you're losing the war.
In Matt 16:21 Jesus explained to his disciples that he must GO and suffer many things. The interesting thing to me is Jesus didn't say suffering would come to him, but he was going to go and suffer. It was a choice he was making to follow where God led even if it meant suffering. And he obviously had the power to SUFFER and overcome. The beauty is that the same power is in us. We have the power to TURN SUFFERING INTO OPPORTUNITY THROUGH FAITH!!
I am convinced that it is always through suffering that we learn the most about ourselves. If we always try to avoid suffering we miss out on the greatest achievements. Who has ever achieved greatness in anything without marching through trials and into suffering. If we make it our goal to avoid opportunity because we are afraid of suffering, we will never grow.
When I am 20 miles into a long run and my legs are about to cramp and each step requires more effort to put ground behind me, there is no place I would rather be than right there. I know that each mile makes me stronger, makes me better, makes me closer to my potential. I know that I can endure. And if I can endure in a run then I can endure in the trials of life. Endurance is learned. It is practiced.
I know God has placed great potential in me. I have faith in the power of prayer. I have faith in the power God placed in me. The word for Christ's power used in scripture is the Greek word Dunamos. It is where we get our word dynamite! We have this explosive power in our life. The power God used to raise Christ from the dead is INSIDE OF US!! And readily available for us.
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote these words in a 1960 essay: My personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering. As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course. Recognizing the necessity for suffering I have tried to make of it a virtue. If only to save myself from bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an opportunity to transform myself and heal the people involved in the tragic situation which now obtains.
To turn personal suffering into opportunity to transform and heal requires great faith. Faith in a creator who created you for greatness. Faith in a God who has an explosive power source. And love for those who also face suffering. I pray that this type of faith grows strong in ME! And in YOU! When it does, WE HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD!!
Try to exclude the possibility of suffering... and find that you have excluded life itself.
-C.S. Lewis
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