Why Pain?
In my experience, The GOOD LORD allows, permits, and thereby even
causes pain. (YES, the stove is HOT.) He would prefer that we trust Him,
and not touch the stove, but IF we do… pain is His reminder to listen
and obey.
PAIN IS GOOD. Pain is the first alert system of disease and danger and
death. Listen and live or dis it and die.
How long this pain, O LORD, How long?
Pain until….in whatever the particular or current situation might be…
until I learn to listen. Until I learn to truly trust… and then in obedience, I
obey. Pain until I humbly reply, “I cannot do this anymore.” When I
absolutely and truly learn that, ‘I cannot,’
THEN Abba shows His love by His actions. When I yield, He picks
ups my burden. He whispers, “I am fully aware, that you CANNOT. But I
love you. I can do this. I will do this. I DO, in covenant kindness, pick up
what you have let fall. I will raise up what you have let die.”
I am just like a little child, struggling to drag a weighty bag ten times my
size up a snowy mountain, all the while confident that I can do it all by
myself. When Dad says, ‘Hey, let me carry that for you,” and I insist that,
‘I got this!’, there will be pain.
But pain has a purpose. As long as I am being that hard-hearted kid,
and I am not listening and yielding to my Good Father; and instead, I am
showing my stiff-necked attitude of, ‘I got this, and I don’t need your
strength or help to pull this bag’… well, then… this child will continually
struggle to carry that which is too heavy for me to carry. Period.
In order to live, I must die first. I must die to my will of, ‘I got this!’ I am
called to be a living sacrifice. But living sacrifices are rather polar
opposites. A sacrifice dies. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I
LIVE, YET NOT I, but CHRIST lives IN ME, and the life I now live, I live by
faith in the Son of God Who loved me… and gave Himself for me.” He
died so that, IN HIM, I too may live.
When I was carrying that heavy bag, I finally…. Finally, recognized, I
could not do it. But my Good Father was right there. Dad wanted to
carry it for me. I literally parked myself at the verse that told me, “Before
I was afflicted, I went astray.” Pain and affliction showed me I was off
the path of my Good Father’s good will for me.
In accepting Christ into my life, I must first be buried with Him. Yep. The
death part comes first. This is the pain part. It is PAINFUL to be a living
sacrifice. To die daily. To die daily to my will and my way. The LIGHT
shines OUT of the darkness. What has not yet died (MY will and MY way
and MY plan) cannot be raised to life until it is FIRST dead and buried in
the ground. My new life is found in the seed planted in the dirt. My new
life is found in THE WORD of God planted in my heart, my soul’s soil.
God’s Word is sharper than ANY two-edged sword. God’s Word, THE
SWORD of His Spirit kills AND makes alive. That seed planted in the dirt
must die, be separated from its current small form, to be raised in
newness of LIFE. The Seed is certainly alive in its death, but must die to
its seed form, in order to grow roots, leaves, a strong stem, and finally
bear the fruit for which it was designed. No farmer ever plants dead
seeds.
When I was DEAD in trespasses and sin, God the Father sent His family
name builder, His Only Son, to rescue me. To carry my baggage. My
weight. As long as I insist on carrying my own burden, Christ will not.
When I finally admit I cannot, He will. He does. My part of the covenant.
I had been divorced from Him and His will and His way and His
Presence. Jesus the Christ, Yeshua HaMachiach, is God the Father’s
exact representation. He died to annul the wedding covenant vows that
were against me. I had eagerly said I would obey… and did not. I could
not. It was not possible. So, He died to renew that good wedding
covenant. (Hosea was sent to marry the prostitute… Gomer.) Jesus
Christ offered up His life… He died to bring LIFE. He died in the flesh…
to bring abundant life into my life. I entered into a covenant with Him. A
wedding contract. A ketubah. I accepted Him as the master of my life. I
strayed. I wandered. He chose to seek me. He chose to die to buy, to
redeem me back. He rose again to seek and to save me. No greater
love has any man, than he lay down his life for his friends. Jesus/Yeshua
not only laid down his life for me as my friend, but also raised it up
again so that I may live an abundant life in Him. United in the likeness
of His death, to be united with Him in the likeness of His life.
Jesus/Yeshua is ONE with His Father. OUR Father. Being a follower of
Christ is to be a disciple. A disciple and discipline walk together.
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been
given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and
lo, I am with you always, event o the end of the age.’” Matthew 28:18-20
A Good Father disciplines out of LOVE. His good instructions do not
save me. His Seed, His Word, His LIVE…LIVING LIVE in ME…brings life
and salvation from sin. His written instructions are designed to keep me
in His path. In His will, and away from sin that leads to death.
Pain is purposeful.
Out of pain comes peace.
Prove it.
“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess
him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before
men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Do NOT
THINK that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did NOT COME TO
BRING PEACE, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS
FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A
DAUGHTER IN LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER IN LAW; and A MAN’S
ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. He who loves
father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves
son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And He who does
not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has
found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will
find it.’“ Matthew 10:32-39
Perfect peace. Is double peace. Peace doubled. Shalom, shalom.
Shalom can be seen as fire devouring the waters of judgment that bring
death and chaos.
Shalom can be seen also as drinking deeply the abundant, still waters
of life.
Double peace.
To find the waters of life, I must be willing to take up my cross… my
instrument of sacrificial death…that first causes death to self… and pick
it up in redemption resurrection.
Baptized by water. Crucified in Christ. Water baptism. (Grace)
Raised to walk in the midst of the fire. (Faith) To walk by faith in
newness of life.
Abundant life. Baptism by fire.
“I (John… meaning Yah is gracious) baptize you with water for
repentance; but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am
not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and
with fire.” Matthew 3:11
As I see it.
May we walk well and shine bright THE Life that is the Light of the
Word.