In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, (I Peter 1:6, 7 NKJV) Pain sucks. Everything about it sucks. It's not fun. It hurts. But to think that it is not useful is a mistake. Years ago I heard about some researchers who were studying leprosy and its affects on the body. They discovered that the disease, which was well known for causing body parts to rot off, was not actually causing body parts to rot. Instead the disease killed the nerves through out the body systematically so that sufferers could no longer feel pain. What they found was that those with leprosy would unknowingly injury themselves because they could not feel. The injuries, unnoticed and left untreated, were the real cause of the flesh decaying. Pain is our bodies way of signaling us to stop a destructive and injurious activity. When we feel physical pain, most of us will stop doing whatever is causing the pain and allow ourselves to heal. Once we have healed we will typically avoid causing ourselves pain in the same way again. Whether that means adopting a stretching routine before a run to avoid muscle pulls or not putting our hand into scalding water, either way we have learned to avoid those painful situations. But avoiding personal pain is nearly impossible. There is no way to control every situation in our lives. Many of us who have been hurt by another or experienced a personal tragedy will try to insulate ourselves from pain by closing ourselves off to people and not allowing ourselves to care. But protecting ourselves from pain in this way only causes more pain. Man was created to love and to be loved. We cannot separate the desire for love and companionship from ourselves anymore than we can live without a beating heart. To fully live we must learn to fully love. We must seek to fully love our Abba, Father of all creation and to fully love His children, our brothers and sisters. True love, pure love is the reason behind all of creation and everything rests upon it. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the first and great commandment. “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40 NKJV) God desires our love above all. But we are wicked. Our hearts are full of pride and self-worship. Our thoughts are toward ourselves and our own pleasures day and night. When we receive the love of God as new creatures in Christ we take it into our hearts but we do not push out the fleshly desires at the same time. We freely mix the purity of God's love with the impurities in our hearts. And a war begins. Our spirits war against our flesh and our flesh wars against our spirits. One will win out. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (Galatians 5:17 NKJV) In Matthew 13 Jesus tells a parable about a man sowing seeds. As he did the seeds scattered and landed on various types of soil. Some of the soil was good for growing but most of it was not. Later he explained the parable to his disciples saying that our hearts are like the soil. Father God desires to grow His word in your heart like a seed planted in the earth but how that word fares is entirely dependent on the quality of soil in your heart. We've been given this gift of love. A parcel of good soil that we have mixed with the bad. If God is to achieve His purpose and grow His love in the soil of our hearts, the impurities must be driven out. Our faith must be shaken and rebuilt again and again. Just as gold and silver are refined through fire so that all the dross has melted away, so we must be refined. And, yes, refinement by fire will hurt. Peter said we are grieved by various trials if NEED be. Pain is allowed into our lives because we need it. When we begin to experience the pain of refinement our first thought is always "Why?!" And unless we turn our pain toward Jesus, it is most likely that we will allow the pain to turn to poison, embittering and hardening our hearts. But if we turn our pain to Him and place our lives in His hands, He WILL turn our mourning into joy and give us beauty for ashes. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord , And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord , that He may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV)
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