There is Purpose in Your Pain.
Listen Here:
I don’t know where you may be today or how you may feel, but let me first admit that I have been struggling. Life has gotten a lot more difficult for me recently. I’m a full-time student at UNC which should say enough already, but on top of that I’m a cheerleader, a YL leader, involved with my local church, and creating podcasts.
I’ve been struggling with finding balance. Once one thing goes awry, I’m all out of shape. And my life has seemed to be going all over the place recently.
I’ve struggled with maintaining friendships, creating new ones, maintaining grades, and pursuing the LORD. And on top of that, I’ve been sick, I’ve had to deal with some very serious issues concerning my friends, and I’ve felt overwhelmed. It is all so much. It can be stressful, it can feel overbearing, and in my case, very difficult.
I mention my struggle today to let you know where I’m coming from on this episode. I feel like I’ve been running my race for Jesus and his glory as hard as I can to win, like we’re called to in 1 Corinthians 9, but I am continually being tripped up and cast down on the track. The enemy keeps knocking me down only for me to get up and have him knock me back down again. I’ve been getting beat up and running has been becoming harder and harder.
If you are listening right now and you feel like me, you feel like you’ve been running your race for Jesus yet you are down on the track right now struggling to keep going, maybe even questioning to keep going, I want to encourage you today.
Today my message is building off of last Friday’s episode calling us to check our focus. We cannot endure any trial without full fixation of eyes on Jesus (we could certainly try, but we would begin to sink like Peter when he lost focus on Jesus trying to walk on water).
That message on Friday was as much for me as it was for you, and I’ve been encouraged by some tremendous people around me to the point where I believe I can encourage you today.
So, to the one suffering today, I pose a simple question: Are you surprised?
If so, why are you surprised? Don’t be surprised!!!!
When you look to Scripture, you won’t find one verse that says you will not endure suffering. There are so many verses, however, on suffering and how we should look at it.
James tells us to “consider it pure joy, brothers and sisters, when (NOT IF) you endure trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).
Paul tells us in Romans 5:3 to “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope..”
Peter tells us to “rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13).
We have three different authors telling us to rejoice in our suffering.
Scripture will also tell us that if we truly are to abide in Christ we should walk like he walked (1 John 2:6), which means he is going to take us through all he went through. It is not an if/then when it comes to suffering, it is a when/then. Suffering is inevitable on this earth.
Suffering is brutal. It is not fun. But don’t be surprised! It is biblical. And there is no one I’d rather suffer for than Jesus. We’re all suffering for something or someone. It may be ourselves, or job security, our family, our spouse, etc.
But there is no other rock I’d rather stand firm on and suffer for than the rock of my Lord and Savior, the One who holds the gift of freedom and eternal life through the blood of his Son.
Why is knowing all this important? Because we need to know there is a purpose to our suffering! If we do not know the purpose of our pain, why would we endure it? How could we rejoice in suffering like we’re told to do unless we knew the purpose behind it?
This is why mental health is at its all time worst and people are taking their own lives at an all time rate. People see their pain and they don’t see the purpose to it.
In Jesus, there is purpose in our suffering! We are suffering for and with him in hopes that one day in eternity he will dwell with us and us with him, and that “He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
NO MORE PAIN! NO MORE SUFFERING! This is the hope that we look to in Jesus.
People will endure suffering with purpose. Women will go through the pains of childbirth knowing their suffering will produce a beautiful baby. We will go through the pain and soreness of lifting weights knowing that our suffering will turn to strength. Athletes train tirelessly with the purpose of being a champion in their sport. Even those who work, work really hard and in many cases suffer so that they may provide for their family.
Similarly, as believers we should look to our suffering and know that its purpose is for endurance with Christ and our future hope in him. Our pain has purpose.
Your pain has purpose.
I think Paul answers why we suffer and endure pain and also further provides the purpose of it in Romans Chapter 8.
Romans 8, beginning in verse 18, reads…
‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.’
These two verses remind me of 2 Corinthians 4:17, where Paul writes of our affliction as ‘light’, and that it is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory ‘beyond all comparison’. Paul sees our pain as MINIMAL in comparison to the glory we will experience in eternity will Jesus.
Now, as we keep reading, Paul answers why we suffer. Verse 20…
20 ‘For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God’.
Here Paul is saying that we suffer because of the sin of Adam. When Adam sinned in the garden, the world was subjected to futility and pain. We suffer because of his decision in Genesis, his loss of focus and trust in God. Let’s keep reading, verse 22…
22 ‘For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now’.
BOOM Stop right there. Our pain has purpose. That analogy I made earlier about the woman willingly going through childbirth is used here by Paul to describe all creation.
Paul has personified creation twice now in this passage and he is doing so in order to show that all of creation longs for the day of Jesus’ return. The production of a baby metaphorically is representative of Jesus’ arrival and the end to suffering.
23 ‘And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.’.
We, along with creation, long for our salvation to be complete in Jesus. We’ve already been saved and adopted through Jesus, but the idea of it being complete is found in us receiving the redemption of our bodies. Bodies that won’t endure pain and suffering.
A body that won’t have to battle cancer, chronic disease, skin conditions, or illnesses. The word pain will cease to exist in our vocabulary. That is our hope. That in this life the pain we endure is for a greater, heavenly purpose. It is so that we may receive the redemption of our bodies through eternal life with Jesus.
If you are reading this right now and you are in great pain, remember this hope. Cling to this hope in Jesus.
Jesus Christ is worthy of your suffering. Say it until you believe it. Your pain has purpose, because in him you await an eternal glory greater than your affliction of earth.
Let’s keep reading, verse 24…
24 ‘Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience’.
Ending there in verse 25, I encourage you to have patience! BE PATIENT! BE PATIENT IN SUFFERING HAVING KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOPE YOU HOLD!
Now that’s easier said than lived. But it’s possible! Think of David in Psalm 27:
“Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!”
If you are enduring pain right now, CONTINUE TO ENDURE. Continue to have hope in what you cannot see, which is faith. KEEP THE FAITH!!!!
Now if you’re like me, you hear the words “be patient” and you’re like “How?”. I’ve tried being patient and my life keeps getting worse. I’ve waited on God to the point where I wonder if He’s even there. Does he even care about me? Or maybe you’re thinking you don’t even know how to be patient. How does one wait for the Lord?
Paul goes on in Romans 8 to answer this question. And I believe he answers it in two ways:
Firstly, he tells us that despite our inability to be patient in suffering, the Holy Spirit intercedes and helps us. Verse 26…
26 ‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words’.
We know God’s sovereign will, but in our confusion for his specific will for our daily lives and our suffering can lead to prayer that honestly questions God. You may be there right now:
“Why are you letting this happen, God?”
“Why does it hurt so bad?”
“Lord deliver me from this situation”
“Heal me Father!”
Maybe you are hurting so bad you can’t even begin to formulate words, and all you can do is collectively groan towards the Lord in a cry for help.
In these moments, in our weakness and vulnerability, the Spirit intercedes for us to give us what we need.
So the first way to be patient in your pain is to understand you cannot do it alone, and to allow for the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in times of need, and hopefully at all times.
The second form of patience Paul describes here is a remembrance and reliance of God’s everlasting love.
Paul reminds us in verse 28 that
‘ALL THINGS work for the good of those who love God, for those who were called according to his purpose’.
That verse alone reminds me that there is purpose to my every step, as God is continually working all things out for my good. Even my pain.
But Paul takes this a step further, by making a declaration of God’s love for us, starting in verse 31. He says:
31 ‘What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?’
PAUSE. What ‘things’ are Paul talking about? Paul is talking about the opposition that we face. The tension you feel, the persecution you face, whether from the world or from the enemy. He is saying that it does not matter what our circumstances look like, no matter how poor the odds are or how great our pain is, with our God, who can be against us? With God, who can defeat us? Paul continues by saying…
32 ‘He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us’.
WOW! Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, presently interceding for me and you. You think he does not know of your pain? You think he has not felt your pain on the cross? That word interceding is present tense. Notice it doesn’t say interceded here. Jesus did intercede for us when he died on the cross, but he still is to this very moment. He is fighting for you, amidst your pain, amidst your struggle, working all things for your good. What great love that is!!!
Let’s Continue, Verse 35:
‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’.
I’m going to read these verses one more time.
We are more than conquerors in Christ. Let these verses hold true and prominence in your suffering. Whether it is a trial, or its stress, persecution, lack of provision, shame, or physical danger, nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, can separate you from our God. Paul says in spite of all these things, we are still more than conquerors because of him who loved us.
Paul’s reference to Psalm 44:22 in verse 36 shows that for those willing to stand for Jesus will face pain and suffering. Again, like I said earlier, it reminds us to not be surprised by suffering. Being a Christian doesn't mean you are exempt from suffering. What it does mean, however, is that you are exempt from hell. Luke 10:20 says your name is written in heaven, and you need to remind yourself of your eternal resting place as you endure your struggle in your temporary resting place.
You are more than a conqueror in Christ.
Paul finishes by saying,
38 ‘For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’.
Your present circumstance cannot separate you from the great everlasting love of Jesus Christ.
The purpose of your pain can be seen when you look at these verses and remind yourself that you are abiding in perfect love and you are looking toward the hope of that love wiping out all pain and suffering from this earth.
So take heart! Take courage! Paul is 100% SURE that NOTHING can separate us from our God. NOTHING!
There is purpose in your pain. Be patient, and wait for the LORD. Remember who is interceding for you and remember the everlasting love in which you experience.
God will turn your pain into joy; Your mourning into dancing; Your weeping into rejoicing. Trust in him, lean on him, and rest in his love.
In him you have no lack, your Father’s got your back, he’ll turn it all around and make it beautiful. He’s working all things out for your good.
I love you guys.
God bless!
