For thought and meditation

[rl69]

"For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow."

—James 1:3

Our basic objective in life is to avoid pain at all costs. We want to be comfortable. We want to get in better shape, but we don’t want to sweat. We don’t want to feel any breakdown of the muscle or go through any kind of exertion. But no pain, no gain, as the expression goes. And what is true of the gym or the health club is also true of life. Pain reminds us of a deeper need.

For instance, we have the pangs of hunger, which reminds us of a deeper need: the need to eat. In the same way, when we go through pain it reminds us of a deeper need: the need for God in our lives. And God will teach us lessons in those valleys that we never would have learned on the mountaintops. He will teach us things we need to know and things we need to share with others, reminders that we are all passing through this life rather rapidly and that another life is coming.

C.S. Lewis wrote that pain “removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.” God wants to plant His flag in our rebel souls. He wants to get control of our lives.

Now don’t get me wrong. As I’ve said before, the Christian life is the greatest life. You will have many moments and times of joy and happiness. But just know that hard times eventually will come. And adversity teaches us eternal truths we would not learn otherwise.

Jesus loves us, and He wants to be glorified through our lives. But He will not always remove suffering because it can make us stronger and give us a platform where we can glorify God and point others to Him.

[Wayne Smith]

I have long taught that part of the 23rd Psalm is alien to Americans. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me".

As Americans we do not want to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we want to drive through in our air conditioned SUVs and look at it. Consequently we never feel God's presence, we don't experience His comfort, and we wonder why.

[square butte]

Thanks for this good lesson rl69 - "Stuff" happens in the middle of pain

[Pine Baron]

Well, as the saying goes,"if your feeling pain, it means you're alive."

[Thundarstick]

I've always said, "what don't kill you makes you stronger, but sometimes it leaves scars".

Thanks for this lesson to ponder.

[GhostHawk]

"Every day on the green side of the grass is a good day" Up to you to figure out how to put it to good use. Or not, as the case may be.

[claude]

This needs no explaination.

Joh 15:18-21 KJV If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. (19) If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (20) Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. (21) But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

[Boaz]

Without hardship or pain we would not grow . How can you understand what you have been blessed with and never experienced not having . How can you understand the troubles and pain of others if you never experienced your own . Thank you rl69 !

[Blackwater]

I can't now believe I ever fell for the sentiment that God would protect me from all harm, after making my profession of faith and being baptized. But I once did. But it sure didn't last very long!

In the same way, I see folks of all ages who still seem to want to believe that God rewards those who know Him, and punishes those who don't. Yes, those who follow Satan or simpler disbelief DO tend to fare less well than those who believe and put our shoulder to the burdens at hand, whether it be making a living or spreading the Gospel. But it's not God who forces that to happen. It's just the inevitable results of a life of sin. In sin, there is death. And it's always been that way.

Christ came down to offer us life, and satisfaction, and "life more abundantly." And indeed, if we follow Him, that's what we inevitably find. But even in all that, we STILL live in a world that's filled with all manner of evils, and evil people. It's up to us to try to avoid them, as best as we can, and when we move among them, that we choose our time and manner in doing so. Most "bad sections" of town CAN be dealt with pretty handily, IF we know how to go there and how to act. What we say and do there is totally up to us, though. There are all manner of temptations there, since evils of all kinds tend to group together with "their own kind." But all of them are really pretty easily to say "No," to. But choosing when and where and how to go about speaking about Christ there CAN be a pretty chancy thing, if you don't know folks like this really well. Even then, there's no real assurance, but if you can recognize the signs, you can usually tell when to just go away. Christ had this down pat, it seems. He went everywhere, and saw pretty much everything. Some of it pleased Him. Some did not. And little has changed since those days. Just disdaining those areas and folks doesn't do one iota of good in dealing with them. And it's not that we're "above them." It's really that they've placed themselves below Christ, and separated themselves from Him and His Love. So ... they live and move in a very "cold-natured" realm of their own making and choosing! And it really takes a very peculiar kind of guy to move among them and make some headway there. It CAN be done, but I wouldn't recommend that most try it. Places like that are NOT for "amateurs!" Maybe that's why God wants all kinds of us? So he'll have the right kind of person with the right kind of knowledge, history and experience, to deal with each type of non-believer there is in this world?

For each of us, there's a place, and a test. Without the test, we could never really be qualified for the tasks God would have us do for Him. Could anyone be more deeply happy than the soldier, who after a long and hard fought battle, finds the victory, and though battle-scarred, flings his helmet in the air in celebration and glee that he's survived and is alive? In some ways at least, we're all like that. We suffer, and strive, and get through almost all the suffering we encounter until our Last Challenge - the one that takes us home. Looks to me like the Lord knows exactly what He's dong, and why, and what he expects of us seems to be very clear - simple obedience and faith in Him .... enough so that we'll go where He wants us to go, instead of where WE want to go. And He works on us all, to get us where He'd have us be. And each of us has a purpose to fulfill on His behalf. God help us realize that! Amen!