{"id":58,"date":"2012-04-30T16:34:59","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meditations.kafkasworld.com\/dir\/?p=58"},"modified":"2012-04-30T16:34:59","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:34:59","slug":"necessary-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/30\/necessary-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Necessary Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Necessary Pain
\nCopyright by Shea Oakley
\nAll rights reserved<\/p>\n

It has been said that the only way out of our difficulties in life is to, with God\u2019s help, go through them. This is a notion some 21st Christians of the West have trouble with. As befits a people deeply influenced by an \u201cinstant gratification\u201d culture most contemporary believers desperately desire to be lifted out of the trials and tribulations they face. Many people choose to run from affliction. The idea is to avoid it if we can and to do whatever it takes to shorten the duration of the pain if we can\u2019t. The problem is that God\u2019s will is for our characters to be transformed through our troubles, not through there avoidance. It is in the crucible of trouble that our faith is tested, refined and deepened. Such redemptive suffering is not to be avoided, but rather accepted, for God\u2019s glory and for our ultimate good.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the spectrum we are not called to be \u201choly masochists.\u201d Accepting suffering is one thing. Seeking it out and inflicting it upon ourselves is quite another. There is necessary pain in God\u2019s economy but He does not exalt pain for pain\u2019s sake. Jesus Himself asked that his own cup be taken from Him, if it were possible. He did not enjoy going to the cross. In the darkness of Gethsemane we see the Son of Man, in his humanness, desperately desiring to avoid the physical and spiritual agony that awaited Him the next morning. But obeying the will of His beloved Father, combined with the joy set before Him at the prospect of our salvation, was worth the price of pain for Jesus. In order for His future children to stay out of Hell He literally went through Hell for us.<\/p>\n

The affliction we are asked to endure is not for the earning of our salvation. Our Lord completely accomplished that for us at Calvary. Rather our trials and tribulations are used by God to enable us to share in the sufferings of Christ so that we might be identified with Him in those sufferings and become more like Him. This is perhaps the essence of the sanctification process. If we try to short-circuit the process by temporarily avoiding necessary pain we set ourselves up for the greater pain that comes from the deliberate stunting of our spiritual growth. We lose, or at least delay, receiving the profound blessings that come with that growth. There are few things more blessed in the maturing Christian life than receiving the earthly crowns that come with our patient and reverent acceptance of earthly affliction.<\/p>\n

Lest this all sound too daunting, too hard, I want to point out a wonderful thing God does in the lives of His suffering children. There are moments in the difficult seasons of the Christian life when our Father does lift us out of the trial we are going through. We may call them \u201cpostcards from Heaven\u201d, \u201cmountaintop experiences\u201d or just \u201cfeeling God\u2019s presence in a new way.\u201d However we express these incredible moments what they do is enable us to sense the intimate, blessed love of Jesus Christ and, simultaneously, to glimpse the final victory that awaits us at the end of our life\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n

The grace of God is what makes such moments possible. It is also His grace that enables us to endure and finally be transformed by the pain we know in this life. We can rest in this truth, no matter what our circumstances, if we choose to. We may not rest in it perfectly all the time. We have only to read the words of people like Job, Jeremiah and David to know that sometimes even the most devout of God\u2019s people cry out in the midst of their affliction. But at such moments in our own lives we too can exercise the faith grace made possible in those men to stay the course and remain obedient to Him, even in great suffering. With such faith comes the comforting knowledge that our Lord not only knows what human pain is, but also enters into our circumstances to share in that pain. God allows Himself to feel what we do and He gives us strength to walk through, and finally out of, every trial we will face on the road to Heaven.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Necessary Pain Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved It has been said that the only way out of our difficulties in life is to, with God\u2019s help, go through them. This is a notion some 21st Christians of the West have trouble with. As befits a people deeply influenced by an \u201cinstant gratification\u201d culture… <\/p>\n

Read more Necessary Pain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-christian","tag-necessary-pain","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6GkOA-W","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":384,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2013\/06\/20\/not-out-but-through\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":0},"title":"Not Out but Through","date":"June 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Not Out but Through Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Taking the easy way out in hard circumstances is a perennial temptation in the Christian life. The desire to follow the path of least resistance is a function of fallen human nature. It comes in the form of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2015\/09\/03\/the-pain-of-avoidance\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":1},"title":"The Pain of Avoidance","date":"September 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Experiencing pain is hard, but the result of avoiding pain is much harder. The pain I speak of is necessary pain. 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Psychologists use the term \u201cself-medicating\u201d to describe the tendency of those in significant emotional distress to seek\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":962,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/11\/healing-and-the-sovereignty-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":3},"title":"Healing and the Sovereignty of God","date":"January 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Our healing may not come about in the way we think it should, but as God knows it must. Chronic pain, whether it is physical or emotional, cries out for relief and we are sure that the time for it to be relieved\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":395,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/07\/when-christians-despair\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":4},"title":"When Christians Despair","date":"August 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Christians Despair Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved \u201cFacing facts as they are produces despair, not frenzy, but real downright despair, and God never blames a man for despair\u2026When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out, he will only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":640,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/20\/ego-surrender-and-vocation\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":5},"title":"Ego, Surrender, and Vocation","date":"March 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved \u201cNo man can do properly what he is called upon to do in this life unless he can learn to forget his ego and act as an instrument of God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 W. 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