THE Blessing of Pain (Restoration & Resurrection)

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."

Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)

Sometimes pain is a gift that tells us what needs fixing. It also tells us what needs to be healed, restored and resurrected in our lives. I learned this lesson when I was going through a divorce in 2009 and again in 2013 when going through a breast cancer diagnosis. Notice carefully that I did not say my divorce or my breast cancer diagnosis. That is because through that pain process, I also remembered how to see things for what they really were. I prayed for discernment from God long before this happened. I did not ask for those things to happen, nor did God give them to me, so I did not claim them as mine.

What I discovered in spending time with God was He allows some things to happen! Okay! The question that I never asked God was, “Why?” “Why was this happening to me, God?” Honestly, my question was, “God, what do you want me to learn from this?” I could not hear God. I could not hear Him because sometimes we expect God to pull a magic wand out and fix things the way our finite minds want Him to fix them. I could not hear God because He wanted to hear from me. He was not speaking the way I wanted Him to speak, which was to handle the problems immediately because He was God, and I knew that He was able. What I learned a little later in the pain process was that God wanted me to spend some time with Him, first in Prayer and then in His Word.

It was in those moments of Prayer with God that I began to receive my restoration. My restoration had absolutely nothing to do with alleviating the pain though. The pain in my marriage gave me pause; while talking to God in prayer, I could remember who my first love should have been. The pain concerning the breast cancer made me totally aware in that God was still in control and He always has the final say in things. God is able. Get that into your spirit. God is able to do what you are asking Him to do. Even if He chooses not to act, there is great peace and hope for us in knowing that He can! Your friends, therapist, mother, father, spouse, and pastor cannot, but God can! 

You see, Prayer gave me an opportunity to open myself up to the promptings of Holy Spirit. God directed me to passages in His Word that I was familiar with and in turn, not so familiar with. God spoke directly to me through His Word, and I listened intently and with purpose. Through this process of Prayer and God’s Word, I remembered something that my sister Jackie used in prayer ministry when she was a member of Thankful – “Prayerful Preparation Produces Powerful Performance.” During this painfilled time in my life, I substituted the word ‘Performance’ with ‘People’. I wrote it in my notebook I keep by my bedside only to introduce these powerful ‘Ps’ seven years later as our Intercessory Prayer Motto at my Church on Wednesdays. Some things need to be resurrected.

When God comes near, there is an obvious trail that tells of His visit. When He performs a resurrection miracle in our lives we should be changed and drastically different. What has He done for you? Has He resurrected your hope; your marriage; your finances; your children’s spiritual lives; your career; your health; your heart for Him? He has done all of that for me except my marriage. What He has done there is Matt and I have become good friends once more. We are one where our daughter and granddaughters are concerned. I have learned to see him through my spiritual eyes and to love him in a manner that is pleasing to God. God, in His Sovereignty, will handle the rest.

An encounter with God is life altering. Ask Hannah (I Samuel 1), Job (Job 42), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 8:22), Stephen (Acts 7:55), Paul and Silas (Acts 16:25-34). Only through pain could they experience the depths of true worship. When God restores you and resurrects those things in you that overwhelms you with His boundless love and power, you notice a radical difference in your lifestyle and the way you look at life and ministry. You should work differently, play differently, react differently, measure success differently, eat differently (still working on this one y’all, with God’s help), love differently, spend money differently, pray differently, and serve differently. Every aspect of your life should be different than before. That is the blessing of pain. It takes us to points of desperation and need, to pivotal moments of prayer and rescue/restoration and resurrection, that we would never experience if left to our own comfortable routines.

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