Pain: You Complete Me

Pain will happen at some point in your life. However, this pain will complete you and direct your purpose if you allow God to work in your life. James instructs, "Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4).

Think about this: "mature, complete, not lacking in anything!"

In order to give your pain purpose, you must think outside the box! Instead of thinking, "What am I going to do with this pain," it's considering, "How will I grow through this season and how can it fulfill God's purpose?" "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 3:27). Start with your thought life and continue to persevere with the help of God, who is faithful!

How does pain complete you?

When you allow pain to finish its work:

• You discover strength. This is supernatural strength using backwards thinking. Paul said, "That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 9:10).

• You expand your endurance. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). There will be fights and we are running a race. This all takes endurance. We train through the conduit of pain and become better at endurance.

• You learn from pain what pleasure cannot teach. After all of the loss that Job endured, he said, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you" (Job 42:5). He caught a glimpse of God that he never would have seen, had it not been for the pain.

• You understand your reward for suffering. Paul wrote, " Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Consider how short this time of pain is in light of eternity!

Don't Call Me "Pleasantness"

In the book of Ruth, we read about Naomi. She lost her husband and her sons. In her heart that is full of pain, this is her response: "“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

We see 2 things in the book of Ruth:

1. Loss brings pain. Naomi means "pleasantness," but Mara means "bitter." Naomi's loss has inflicted pain so deep that she changed her very name. Pain can cause wounds that are difficult to heal. How can you bypass sorrow and grief and expect spiritual maturity? If we want to be like Jesus, we will be acquainted with sorrow, yet focused on something beyond the pain.

2. Pain can lead to something powerful. What Naomi did not see was that her pain would serve a greater purpose. We are often blinded by our feelings. But consider that God can used this pain to drive you to Him and to something much more powerful and meaningful. We cannot see the future, but we can trust God with our future!

   
   
   
   

In Closing

In the end, Naomi's pain led her back to her homeland. Ruth followed, Naomi helped join Ruth and Boaz together, This union not only blessed her with a grandchild, it led to a king! "Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David" (Ruth 4:16-17). This was a purposeful ending to a painful story.

Finally, always remember this: You are where you are to help others where they are! While in pain, Naomi helped in the life of Ruth.

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