Your Pain Is Purposed

I hate pain.
You hate pain.
We ALL hate pain.

Before undergoing any medical procedure the first question we ask, or at least think is, “Will it be painful?”; Likewise we approach God, the skillful surgeon in a similar manner, we ask Him, “will it hurt?” and to our flesh’s misfortune, the answer is usually “Yes, it will hurt“, however, God doesn’t stop there, He continues with “BUT my grace is sufficient, for I will perfect my strength in your weakness.” (2 Cor 12:9) These are true and comforting words, but they can fuel a sense of frustration or hopelessness in us because we don’t want COMFORT in the midst of PAIN, we’d rather have NO PAIN at all in the first place!

But my question to you is, how would you understand and truly experience God’s presence as a Comforter outside of pain or affliction? 

While Jesus walked on earth, He said that it was better for Him to go away so that we may receive the Comforter (John 16:7), some versions say Advocate, Counselor or Helper. They all convey similar messages which is that the Holy Spirit not only leads us into deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, but He gives us the divine strength needed to undergo  trials and persecution on behalf of the divine kingdom.

The Holy Spirit sustains us day after day, He comforts us and helps us to cope with the challenges while leading us into deeper truth concerning the Word of God and what God is saying about our situation. Therefore though our outer nature may be wasting away, we do not lose hope because our inner nature is being renewed day by day! (2 Cor 4:16) Oh, Holy Spirit how we love your ministry to us, in us and through us!

 

What if I told you that affliction is good?

According to David (a man after God’s heart), affliction propels us to learn God’s statues!

It is good for me that I have been afflicted,that I may learn Your statutes. Psalm 119:71

The word used  for statutes there is the Hebrew word “choq” which means ordinance, limit, something prescribed, conditions and decrees.

God allows pain that we may learn His ordinances, His conditions, His prescribed methods of dealing with this situation. Common and effective prescriptions are prayer, meditation upon the Word and choosing to allow this trial to bring us closer to Him while making us more like Jesus.

In Mark 4, there is an account told of Jesus being on-board a ship when a violent storm occurs, while everyone is running around frantically, Jesus is sound asleep in the stern of the ship. The disciples quickly awake Jesus and cry out,  “DON’T YOU CARE THAT WE ARE PERISHING!?”

On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.  But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” Mark 4:35-40

I can imagine the disciples were thinking “helllooo Jesus, DO SOMETHING, we’re about to DIE!” yet after Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves, He rebuked them! He asked them where their faith had gone. Instead of placing their faith in God’s sovereignty, they allowed their current situation to drown out that truth.

How many times do we allow our physical realities drown out God’s spiritual truths?
How often do we think that God is asleep in the midst of our circumstances?
How frequently are we frantically running around in the storm willing it to stop, yet failing?

Jesus said “Peace, be still” to that storm, and He does likewise in our storms in His timing, but before He calms the storm, He often calms His child. There are many times when God is speaking to our hearts in the violent activity of the storm and saying “Peace, be still my child and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) Let’s take a leaf out of our Teacher’s book for the servant is not greater than the master — if our Teacher can be at peace through the storm, surely the students should follow suit! After all, we want to look more like Him.

The goodness birthed in affliction is further developed by James. He remarks that we should rejoice in trials because they test our faith and in doing such highlight the weak areas that we need to build up. We see this at work in the above passage where the area that Jesus spoke to the disciples about was their lack of faith. We need to confront these weaknesses in our lives with allowing the word of God to permeate our hearts and lives. James also went on to say that these testings of our faith produce patience and having patience perfects and completes us so that we lack nothing! How lovely it is to have patience!

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1: 2-4

God has not healed you immediately because He is testing your faith, lest you be found wanting, while simultaneously increasing your patience!

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen, faith in God produces active patience because we hope in His word. (Psalm 130:5-6)

Paul likewise, spoke about glorying in tribulations because it causes a chain reaction.

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:3-5

Our hope is not laid up in idle words or false promises, rather, we hope in the living God and trust in His unfailing word. 

In closing, God has not rescued you from your affliction as yet because He is increasing your faith in Him by causing you to wait upon Him. He hears your cries for help and you ought to know that He is with you in the midst of the storm. In the midst of the heart ache, the struggle and the agony, He is THERE! He is omnipresent, where can we go from His presence! (Psalm 139: 7) and through this entire ordeal, He is refining your faith in Him and adjusting your attitude. You may be in pain, but this is purposed, so rejoice brothers and sisters! He will allow all things to work together for His perfect and good plan for your life because you are called according to His purposes and you love Him. (Romans 8:28)

God will forever be Jehovah Rapha but understand that there is a timeline to your healing, be patient, persevere in prayer and hope in the Lord because He loves you and WILL come to your rescue. In the mean time, thank Him for introducing you to the Comforter firsthand.
With love,
Dominique Lovell

Go forth and love!

It has approximately been a year since I traveled to Haiti and often times, I still find myself revisiting the deeply embedded memories; from simple things like riding in a “tap tap” (an open back truck) and helping out with the feeding program on evenings, to smaller things, like enjoying their yummy chicken nuggets. These streams of memories flood my mind constantly and they point to lessons learnt, and each lesson points to love.

“Love, loves to love and the reward of love, is love.” — Misty Edwards

Love must be one of the most talked about concepts ever, everyone is searching for it because we were all made by and for Love, Himself. We all have our own ideas about what love is, what it looks and what it feels like, but I dare say that you can’t find love outside of God, because it does not exist; at the core of love is God, He IS love, and only in Him will you find it and be able to express it.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8 (ESV)

In understanding who love is and getting connected to His heart, our inward submission to His love translates outwardly to submission to His commandments. 

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23 (ESV)

Jesus commanded His disciples to go out and make disciples of all nations, we are His disciples and therefore that commandment applies to us and we obey His commandments because we love Him.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)

God wears nations on His heart, He calls out nations and exposes His heart to them, He shows them His sorrow over their abandonment and reasons with them to come – to repent and return to Him. God has created man to walk with and partner with Him, we see an excellent depiction of this as Adam walked alongside Him in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). In partnering with Him, we care about what He cares about, and He cares about people — the nations of the earth, and therefore, we should as well. Very often we dismiss missions as an event that is only available to or expected of a select few; however, we are ALL called to missions, whether our mission field is our home, our work place, our school, our community or other nations. Wherever you are positioned, there is a ready harvest awaiting labourers, choose to accept the call to labour for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

I said all of that to say that I love God and I love the people He has created and therefore when Haiti presented itself, God spoke and I answered and responded by following Him there. I traveled with a mixed-age group of Barbadians who are a part of a group called “Team Hope” and we united in the purpose of seeking to make a difference by displaying the love of Christ. Our theme was “Revival Is Possible” which stemmed from John Yarde’s song “Revival Is Possible” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7NyU0ojpac&feature=kp) and was rooted in God’s promise in His word to hear the sincere cry of His people and to answer them, God is in the habit of answering our deprivation with mercy.

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

We believed this promise of the Lord for Haiti, believing that if they would humble themselves and return to the Lord, He would forgive them and restore their land. We delivered this message in various ways as we co-laboured with God concerning the work He had already started in the church and the orphanage which we worked with while we were there.

We stayed for two weeks and those weeks were filled with extreme highs and extreme lows but through it all, we prayed that God was glorified. I can personally say that when you are pushed directly out of your comfort zone — away from your loved ones, confronted with a very different culture and facing severe challenges in communicating with your VERY limited Haitian creole vocabulary, then you realize that one thing surpasses every barrier imaginable, and that is love.

So we submitted under the leadership of Love and allowed Him to use us.

“God’s definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.” — Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

I am a firm believer that revival is possible and we fuel it with our love for God and others! Love on somebody today!

 

Jacmel, Haiti. Photo credit: Michael Trotman Photography
( http://michaeltrotmanphotography.com/ )

 

Penned by yours truly,
Dominique Lovell 

The heart of the matter is all that matters.