God was working in the weather patterns that circled the globe. In real life, it’s a wounded soldier coming home, still proud of the uniform and the duty that cost him so much. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10). But you never have to struggle with finding a purpose behind your pain. In these verses, Paul is referring to multiple types of suffering – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. That’s why it’s so important for me to take my time going through this, because I want it to be so helpful to you and to many others. Pain happens. People watch those who are hurting to see what matters most to them. In other words, it's a measuring tool. And so God goads us, but He also guides us with the pain that we have in our lives. English (US) Español; Français (France) 中文(简体) playing non copyright music for stream opm Mushup rap lovesong owned by : muffinman Gaming It's common to wonder if our suffering is God's Will. One of the first things we think of when it comes to suffering is that we must avoid it at all costs, but God brings suffering in our lives for the sake of our eternal joy and glory, even if we can’t understand why at this time. He could prove the power of God even more with the miracles that were so common in Ephesus, for instance (Acts 19:11-12). God never allows pain without a purpose. God wills pain for good purposes and results. (Flickr ) Your pain often reveals God's purpose for you. Sign up for Beliefnet's Bible Reading newsletter. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should help you gain some hope. It’s important that we recognize that suffering is a battleground. Please see below for details. Sharing Faith Bible Verse. That tiny little irritant slips inside the tight seal of an oyster’s shell, and immediately causes discomfort. It exists so that we will recognize there is a problem, allowing us to address and rectify the cause. In just a few weeks, Paul had another supernatural experience in Jerusalem, when he “saw the Lord speaking” while in a trance (Acts 22:17). In our pain, we long to know why God allows grief and hardship into our lives. God’s purpose for creating us was never malicious. It was straight-from-hell bad, if you read the passage closely enough. We never have just cause for blaming him. The apostle Paul is the New Testament’s version of an “unsinkable Molly Brown.” As was the case for the Titanic’s most famous survivor, Paul simply refused to go down with the ship … literally. Pain always has a purpose. Like Paul, perhaps most of us can’t see the purpose of our pain right at first. Beliefnet is a lifestyle website providing feature editorial content around the topics of inspiration, spirituality, health, wellness, love and family, news and entertainment. The last verse was a warning; this is an encouragement. Other problems along the way? “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). It’s the suffering of our Savior that allows the gate to be there in the first place … and more than likely, all who enter those priceless gates will have also known the personal cost of great suffering. From a logical point of view, it would seem that God would reward those who do good with less pain. Know how the pearl came to be? Whatever the problem, it apparently stayed with Paul for quite some time, or even the rest of his life. He had seen rejection and disappointment as surely as you have. Certainly it would seem that God would give those in Christian ministry a free pass from pain. His “resume of suffering” appears near this very passage (2 Corinthians 11:23-29), and it includes multiple imprisonments, beatings, floggings, canings, life-threatening experiences, a stoning, shipwrecks, and a “night and a day” floating in the open sea. For those who will dare search for pain’s purpose, there is one more thing. In Jesus' Name, Amen (Acts 19:10) Suddenly, in as little time as it takes to incite a riot, 25,000 people packed the local theater and screamed their disapproval of the message that was threatening the worship of Artemis, one of the most important economic engines of the city. 1) Pain has a purpose. The book of Job offers great insight on the two ways we can choose to respond to suffering. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. Find answers to some of the more asked questions. ... God Never allows pain without purpose. III. In the first 13 verses we are given some understanding of the purpose of trials that come our way. 1. Scripture tells us, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). ... 10 Things Never to Say to Your Adult Children. You need to realize that you’re not big enough; you’ll never make it without depending utterly upon Him and going in His strength. 2. As God worked, the waiting was hard for Joseph … bitterly hard. Only we do that. Other times there are things that are simply out of our control, yet God still allows them to happen just as He did with Job. Three times Paul was shipwrecked, and he once spent a full day – “a night and a day,” as he puts it – on the open sea. Without being too dogmatic, we know that, generally speaking, one of God’s purposes in trials is to get the world’s attention off themselves and onto Him, their Creator and Savior—which is the biggest part of the answer to the question at hand. God intended for us to have joyful lives without pain and anguish, but in defiance of God we allowed sin to enter the world. In him is light, and no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). Isaiah 66 / Isaiah 66:9 9 In the same way I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born," says the Lord. We too have played the role of sinner, harming others with the choices we make. If you've gone through a hurt, he wants you to help other people going through a similar hurt. In fact, the only thing that seemed to discourage Paul were the problems in his young churches. He’d been scored, chased, scandalized and slandered. Not despite our past, but because of it. The same is true for our personal pain. In our pain, we long to know why God allows grief and hardship into our lives. I repeat this to myself over and over again. We rebel at the suggestion of it, recoil at the sight of it, and reject the suggestion that it might be good for us. Please spray the wilderness to rid the areas of these pests.Please pave the trails so they can be snow-plowed during the winter.Chair lifts need to be in some places so that we can get to wonderful views without having to hike to them.The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. To lift us from the pain and to bring us hope and happiness. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs. It’s also important that we recognize that our suffering doesn’t happen without purpose. Sin lurks at each of our doors. And perhaps he had other such encounters, but Luke only tells us of these. “ for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee ” (Hebrews 13:5). Anger at sin is good (Mark 3:5), but anger at goodness is sin. It’s a prime-time witness, when all eyes are on the person who hurts. After all, missionaries, church planters and pastors work for God! Unfortunately, it is in that place of greatest pain, and there alone, that the discovery can be made. Paul didn’t get a pass from pain. Paul asked again. Paul also had a vision, however, of a man from Macedonia (Acts 16:9) and an angel of the Lord (Acts 27:23–24). Free shipping on books, Bibles, gifts, VBS and Church Supplies of $50 or more. We can tell the story in a minute or two. And again. Working in the Oncology field has opened my eyes to this even more so. In this particular passage, Paul receives a special message from the Lord. Again and again the oyster coats the sand, but  all the attempts to get rid of the irritant have little effect. There, Jesus told Paul to take the message of the gospel to the Gentiles, an instruction that represented a major shift in missions and in Paul’s personal life. “Please, God.”“Please, God.”“Please, God.”. Pain is an Indicator that Something is Wrong You’ll see the character on the inside that inspires all of us. 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