| Rightly Viewing Pain |
|
[This article spoke to us. We hope it might also speak to you. It is from a church planter in Italy and we share his article by permission. If you find it a blessing as we did, be sure to send this brother a note by email to encourage him in his ongoing labors for the extension and strengthening of Christ’s kingdom. –TSA] Written By: Ken Wells ~
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
~ http://www.seeteams.org/staff/wells.htm I have been reading through the latest prayer requests sent to me by my pastor for our local assembly in Florida. I notice that the majority of them deal with health issues. As I read, my own left shoulder is bandaged and medicated from arthroscopic surgery last Friday. Looking at the list, I am reminded how frail the human body is - leaking aortic heart valves, frozen shoulders, stomach pains - to say nothing of the aging process that affects us all. We are simply so vulnerable, aren't we? The tiniest of germs can put us flat on our backs. . . . and onto someone's prayer list! Dealing with physical pain of a more intense nature than I'm used to has caused me to reflect on my unsaved friends and neighbors. They are just as frail as I am and subject to the same kinds of physical ailments - yet theirs is different. Their pain must speak a different message to them. They have no Redeemer or redemption to dwell on. Theirs is a reminder of graver things to come. Their pain, perhaps, makes their today more futile than their yesterday and their tomorrow more futile than their today because even if they manage some temporary respite, all is winding downward. And they know it (Rom.1:18). God uses pain in the life of all believers to communicate many things to His children but futility is not one of them. Life is not an endless, downward spiral. Every true believer - even in the worst of health - can rest in the same confidence that Job had when he said, "I know that my Redeemer lives . . . and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God . . . with my own eyes - I, and not another" (Job 19:25-27). Undoubtedly my own pain should be a reminder not only to pray for Christians with similar needs but also to speak the Gospel to those in my life without Christ whose pains are a precursor of things to come (Heb.9:27). One of the Italian words for surgery is 'intervento'. I like that. It means that someone was willing to intervene, or come between, me and the pain in my shoulder. I'm very grateful to the surgeon and the nurses who did that. But the Gospel connotation of the word is not lost on me. 'Intervento'…Jesus being willing and able to come between me and my sin. Of course, Jesus did much more than only come between me and my sin. The Bible says He became my sin for me. He actually took on my infirmity and gave me His righteousness in its place (2 Cor. 5:21). He suffered the horrible effects of all of my spiritual diseases (sin) while giving me His own perfect spiritual life - totally impervious to the corrupting influences of sin. That means my soul can never suffer a relapse to where it needs to be saved a second or third time. Perfection, by definition, is singular and I have been declared forever clean because Christ's life and sacrifice were perfect (Heb.9:28). My life is now hidden with Christ in God (Col.3:3) and therefore, whatever meaning I attach to my suffering must be rooted in notions that are redemptive and not futile. I'm grateful for prayer lists, to be on them and to pray over them . . . but I'll be glad when they are no longer necessary.” –Ken ‘08 |
