let love sacrifice (part 4 of 4 ) - the purpose of pain

~ The Purpose of Pain ~  
    Even though God empowers us to combat our pain and the pain of others in the world, He desires for us to see its purpose. For you and I to leave a legacy of love with Christ’s name written all over it we will need to embrace our past, present and future pains.  You see, God has plans for us to carry His light into our places of darkness if for no other reason than to help someone who is lost to find their way out and into His saving grace.  He alone makes it possible for us to find and hold onto joy, peace, comfort and hope amidst any trial we might endure.  It is also there that He is best able to prove His love for us.  Our pains are not meaningless.  When revered as pivotal moments in your relationship with Jesus, pain is often the catalyst that drives impactful change, change that may be behavioral or relational.
    None of us want pain.  Isn’t it the last thing we ever want for ourselves and for our loved ones?  Sure it is and I am no different in desiring detours that would steer me clear of every possible painful catastrophe.  Though I can confess that when I look back on every deeply painful trial I have walked through, I emerged stronger, more compassionate, less arrogant, more humbled, less prideful and more thankful.  So, if I can see that it is true for me that pain has produced refinement and an improved quality in my heart then I believe it is also true for you.  For this reason my prayer is that we could all see and appreciate that God has a purpose in pain and that it is ultimately to be used to honor and glorify Him.
    The book of Isaiah has something interesting to share about how God works in the darknesses we will experience in life.  What if the darkness is where treasures are hidden?
        Isaiah 45:3 (NIV)
  “I will give you the treasures of darkness,
    riches stored in secret places,
    so that you may know that I am the LORD,
    the God of Israel, who summons you by name.”

     In her book, “Choose Joy”, author Kay Warren said this about darkness, “The immediate challenge for me was to believe that treasures in the darkness actually exist and then to believe I could find them.  And yes, I had to accept and embrace the truth that these treasures are a special category of gifts from God, hidden riches ONLY to be found in the secret places of my deepest pain and agony.”
       When we can truly begin to embrace that God is at work in every situation of our lives, even the most painful, I believe we can find strength to hunt for the gold.  Those nuggets are precisely what helps us to look back on the hardest parts of our lives and exclaim confidently, “I would do it all again” because we realize that without the pain we might not have ever uncovered the treasure.
    In Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV) we can see that God also uses circumstances with unpredictable outcomes to reveal His greatness.  “Call to me. I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”  
     Jeremiah was in confinement when God gave him that instruction. There are very great things, insights, wisdom and mysteries - things we cannot search for answers to on our own - that God will reveal to us, and it is possible that some sort of painful confinement is exactly what we need to motivate us to call out to Him.
     Finally, throughout the Psalms we witness over and over that David’s sorrow turns into rejoicing and his pains become songs of praise. God referred to David as a man after His own heart, the source of the greatest love of all. David was barely able to avoid pain for a moment but yet his life was used to help accomplish extraordinary fame for Jesus.
      You and I would be hard pressed to find a person in the Bible who didn’t endure deep pain.  Every apostle and disciple, prophet and leader walked through something they would have rather given up an arm than to go through and yet all of our Biblical heroes died leaving the legacy of the love of Christ.  God desires the same for us, to expose beautiful treasures in the depths of our darkest pain.
      May be we blessed to know that every pain we endure has a purpose and if we let it, in hope, our pain will lead to the kind of love that Jesus has made famous.
     Love is risky, I know. And it hurts so much at times, I hear you. But the greatest sacrifice yields the deepest rewards. When it comes to love, God will always return to us what we give away for His sake.
    (Prayer)  Jesus, you have loved like a wild man, crazy with a passion and desire to see the massive collection of us redeemed and restored to you. Lord, empower us with more than a gentle or timid willingness to love a little. Empower us with hope that never doubts, energy that never fades, courage that never fears and joy that cannot be contained. Lead us in love that conquers evil. Amen.