YOUR PAIN HAS A PURPOSE
By Synthia Esther
Have you suffered, survived and surpassed your sorrow and pain? Jesus Christ, although He is the son of God, learned obedience from what He suffered and once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, (Heb. 5:8). The question is, " what did you learn from your experience?" What course and direction in life did you choose to replace the hole in your wounded spirit?
Have your actions proven conducive to your healing? Or have you remained trapped, plagued with doubt, emotional and spiritual growth stunted from the aftermath of pain, abuse or abandonment. Perhaps due to your past relationship with pain, you have filled your life consumed with a successful career. Living in the midst of personal power and admiration from those who look up to your position, wealth and success. The new clothes you wear, car you drive and the beautiful, well appointed mansion you live in, all add to the illusion of grander you surround yourself with. Even the human partner on your arm suits a personal need and gratification. You have enough money to "buy" the attention of many people who cross your life's path. Most use you, like you use them. It matters little in your quest for controlling power and admiration. Perhaps you have been blessed with children whom attend the best private schools in the country. You bask in your personal glory, all of which provide evidence of your opinion of your own self worth.
Maybe you replaced the hole in your soul with the gratification of self pity and lack of motivation. Your home is a card board box underneath the ramp of a busy freeway. The sound of cars and trucks traveling in rapid succession become a familiar and strange source of comfort. Your reclusive, lonely spirit distrusts most "all " of humanity, for your past relationship with pain has taught you to do so.
Frail, weak and weary you walk to garbage containers looking for a morsel of food to eat or the butt of a cigarette to smoke. Lost and in desperate need of healing, peace and love you strive to live one day at a time. Perhaps you worry where your next meal, bottle of liqueur or line of crack will come from. You tear off a piece of your card board box to make a sign that reads, "Homeless And In Need." You hold it with a semblance of faith, standing on the street corner, slumped shouldered with a gazed look in your eyes. Your face and hands are blistered-red from the wind and cold, your skin dry and chapped. The dirty clothes you wear are worn and reek of a putrefied odor. Laced shoes expose the side of your bare feet because they aren't your size but you cut the sides out to fit. Socks are a luxury. You stand on the street corner in hopes of receiving enough money to buy food to eat or your next fix to take, which provides a brief escape from your inner turmoil. The rich man in his bright, shinny new luxury car stops at the red light, ignores your existence and rides past you in self righteous condemnation.
It is hard for the rich man to imagine that he and the poor homeless beggar have anything in common. But yet they do. Many a rich man, poor man and even those who live in between life's spectrum of existence can share common goals, interest and coping mechanisms. They have become people living to forget and in turn forgetting how their spirits were meant to live. They strive to escape life's problems yet eventually all come full circle, realizing that nothing seems to change no matter the amount of self medication they may use to deaden their pain.
Many have worked hard at feeding their body while they have literally starved their soul. Living life spiritually void, crippled, mentally and emotionally handicapped, they strive for inner peace and security yet their coping pattern's of experience fail to ease inner loneliness, pain and sorrow. They continue to search for fulfillment from without, when the answers lie within. God, in his word suggests a different way of living. Pro. 8:32, "Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways."
Your pain has a purpose, and that purpose is to develop your spiritual growth and maturity. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid, (Pro. 12:1). God does not want us to remain spiritually immature. Eph. 4:13-15 "...become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up." Your spirits inspiration comes from walking in obedience to God's words of wisdom.
By embracing your life experiences as stepping stones towards a higher purpose, you empower your spirit to soar in freedom towards Gods spiritual vision for your life. You learn to walk the path of forgiveness, thus enabling true spiritual empowerment and growth. When developing a life based on feeding your spirit you become part of God's master plan for humanities future. A future that has at its core, love, the basic need of all of humanities quest for fulfillment. God created man out of love. God, gave His only begotten son Jesus Christ, to die as sin's sacrificial lamb on Calvary's cross, out of love. God first loved us so that we might learn to love Him.
It is His spirit, the Holy Spirit, that grieves when we choose to walk away from his love. Love is humanities true spiritual foundation, purpose and plan. It is love that feeds our spirit with the true source of all our needs. Fulfillment of all desire in life stems from this core need. Could it possibly mean this love could be for you? Or even me? How could that be when we humans are so unworthy? John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
The blood of the Lamb of sacrifice Jesus Christ, on Calvary's cross makes us worthy! He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption, (Heb .9:12). We need only to believe in order to experience the love of Christ, which endures forever!
Psalm 136 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. (2) Give thanks to the God of Gods. His love endures forever. (3) Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever. (4) to Him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever. (5) who by his understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever. (6) who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever. (7) who made the great lights- His love endures forever. (8) the sun to govern the day, His love endures forever. (9) the moon and stars to govern the night; His love endures forever. (10) to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt His love endures forever. (11) and brought Israel out from among them, His love endures forever. (12) with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever. (13) to Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, His love endures forever. (14) and brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever. (15) but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea; His love endures forever. (16) to Him who led his people through the desert, His love endures forever. (17) who struck down great kings, His love endures forever. (18) and killed mighty kings-His love endures forever. (19) Sihon king of the Amorites His love endures forever. (20) and Og king of Bashan-His love endures forever. (21) and gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever. (22) an inheritance to His servant Israel; His love endures forever. (23) to the one who remembered us in our low estate , His love endures forever. (24) and freed us from our enemies, His love endures forever. (25) and who gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. (26) Give thanks to the God of Heaven. His love endures forever."
As one of God's children, your pain can lead you to personally knowing God's love which endures forever. He will bring you peace, because his love endures forever. He desires a relationship with you, because his love endures forever. He has a plan of hope for your life, because His love endures forever. He wants to fill your life with joy and eternal pleasures, because His love endures forever. He will give you beauty for ashes, because His love endures forever. He desires to show you His eternal favor, because His love endures forever. He desires to bless your fruit of righteousness, because His love endures forever. He sends his mighty Angels to protect you, because His love endures forever. He desires to make your path straight, because His love endures forever. He desires to guard and deliver you from your enemies, because His love endures forever. He will make your enemies your foot stool, because His love endures forever. He will release your feet from the snare, because His love endures forever. He is a rock of refuge, because His love endures forever. He desires to make you the "head" in life not the tail, because His love endures forever. He desires to give you wisdom and discernment beyond measure, because His love endures forever. He desires to give you a life of peace and prosperity, because His love endures forever. He will heal your infirmities, because His love endures forever. He defeated death on the cross of Calvary providing the way for eternal life, because His love endures forever. He holds victory in store for the upright, because His love endures forever. He is preparing for His children a place called Heaven with streets of gold and many mansions, because His love endures forever.
He is offering you the invitation right now to ask Him into your heart, because His love endures forever. As you repent of past sins, confess and believe in his name you become one of His children, because His love endures forever. As a child of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, He blesses your future generations, because His love endures forever. He includes your name in the Lambs book of life, because His love endures forever. If the pain of your past brought you to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, you have just made the greatest, most profound decision of your life. Now you too are commissioned to tell the World that Jesus Christ gave us the greatest example of pain and purpose on the cross of Calvary, and He did so because His love endures forever!
