DON’T WASTE YOUR PAIN!

DON’T WASTE YOUR PAIN!

2 Cor 1:3-4

3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

1 Peter 1:6

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

         For the one who has trusted Christ as Savior, pain has a purpose. What you are now going through is actually ministry training. Do you see what Paul says in Second Corinthians? God allow all our tribulation so that we might be able to comfort those who are in any trouble. We walk through our pain, emerging from it with experience, so that we might minister to others.

         Peter agrees and says that trouble is “needed.” The word manifold is from the Greek word which means “motley or various in character and kind.” The loss of your loved one makes you able to comfort those who are hurting and alone. The hard won victory you now enjoy over a fierce addiction now makes you able to minister to those who are in bondage. The hardship you endure day after day without any victory in sight makes you able to minister to those who are in any trouble.

         But you must suffer by the rules! Acknowledge that you are angry with God and ask Him to minister to your hurt. Stop blaming others and move toward becoming thankful for your training. Lean hard upon the solid and sure nature and character of God. He loves you and is working out His best for you. This has been declared many times in the Bible. Do not doubt those words while you are suffering. Just off stage; just out of the frame of the picture of your life, stands Jesus the captain of your soul. He is making you a capable counselor. Give it time.

Job 23:10

10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Dear Lord, there are many of my friends who are suffering motley and various trouble. Teach them many things in the midst of their trouble and then make them able ministers because of their trouble. AMEN