Dealing with Pain

Ever dealt with pain? I mean pain that continues with no relief.  In seeing people dealing with their pain I think how easy it is today to take a pill. There are many who must get their relief  in the pharmacy with a prescription or in one over the counter. I thought today of days early on in my life when a game of basketball with friends at school brought me to grief on the floor when my foot got entangled with my sister's foot in making a shot.

Yes, for years I went to chiropractors and doctors alike. There were times the pain brought me down from my regular routine to bed time for days and weeks at a time. The pain would come and go. Finally I decided, I needed another's help. So applying God's word has helped me so much. He has given me wisdom to know which nutrients I need to keep peace in my muscles. One thing I have seen in the many years, that when one suffers with pain from any source, one can be stopped in their tracks. Literally anyone with a confrontation of pain, heartache, and death can stop someone cold. They will freeze up, unable to cope with the situation that faces them.

I love to walk and hike some distances. But we had not been able to do that till we found relief in the Word. Early on, we would hike the long canyons in Colorado. Another was a hike out of a reservoir area we were hunting one year for elk. I would not want to do that again in mid October. But praise the Lord for His goodness to those who do their own thing!

But the subject of pain can bring tears, and remembrances of hard times of doing nothing in life. Pain can separate a person from other people. Nothing from our past can add to our future. Taking baggage with us from the past only brings the past to this present moment. Dwelling on hurts and disappointments only brings despair. 

Ecclesiastes 1:12-16....I discovered that the lot of man, which God has dealt to him, is not a happy one. It is all foolishness, chasing the wind. What is wrong cannot be righted; it is water over the dam; and there is no use thinking of what might have been. 

16 I said to myself, "Look, I am better educated than any of the kings before me in Jerusalem. I have greater wisdom and knowledge." So I worked hard to be wise instead of foolish --but now I realize that even this was like chasing the wind. For the more my wisdom, the more my grief; to increase knowledge only increases distress.     TLB

In the Living Bible this verse is paraphrased, “What is wrong cannot be righted; it is water over the dam and there is no use thinking of what might have been.”

Only God can restore. He can change that which needs to change and a lot of the time it starts with each of us. As my daughter always says, “it’s a heart issue, Mom!”

We can be encouraged that whatever is dealt to us may be as bitter lemon, but God can make lemonade out of it and see us prosper in the future.

In the scripture above, the increase in  knowledge is that of the world. People think the more head knowledge they have the more happy and prosperous they will be, but it is the wisdom of God that leads us to life in abundance, a more set for a course of glorifying Him and not us. Learning something that helps us become more equipped in the course of life as a nurse, a doctor, and/ or lawyer always take some education. But to keep getting an education in something you cannot get a job in is futile.

In life there is always going to be disappointments, discouragements, and pain, but how we address them and move on determines our success in moving forward in life. Applying God's Word to that source of pain helps tremendously. In applying that life-giving word, we are taking God's pill for the situation.

 Psalm 38:6-8...6 I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly;

I go mourning all the day long. 

7 For my loins are full of inflammation,

And there is no soundness in my flesh. 

8 I am feeble and severely broken;

I groan because of the turmoil of my heart. NKJV

Turmoil in the heart is a serious thing.  Being consumed about an illness, a family in chaos, illness of family member miles away, over a child's rebellion at home and in school, or just feeling abandoned in times of pain, can cause turmoil. It can cause us to stop. Have you or anyone around you ever mention, "I do not like this ride anymore and I want to get off? Or "just stop this planet please, I would like to try another?" I have!

Weariness can drag a person down when they continually mourn the thing for which they meditate on in regard to loss and or pain. They might see disappointment as to a job loss, or a ministry. They might see a family breaking apart by the most unusual circumstances, and not know what to do to stop it. Although the person above in Psalm 38 was most likely dealing with some sickness or disease within their body, he surely meditated on hearing the verdict of the illness.  He was groaning in his heart because of the magnitude of the circumstance.

Psalm 38:17-20.....17 For I am ready to fall,
And my sorrow is continually before me. 
18 For I will declare my iniquity;
I will be in anguish over my sin. 
19 But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong;
And those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied. 
20 Those also who render evil for good,
They are my adversaries, because I follow what is good.  NKJV

David was mentioning his sorrow, his pain was continually before him. He points to sin that he had to declare to God. Even though he felt his enemies were strong and even those who hated him had multiplied, he courted the truth that God would help him since he followed after good. 
In experiencing pain, we can feel as weak as the weakest elderly person alive today, with no resistance available. But where we are weak God makes us strong.


We are to cast our care upon God for He cares for us!

Psalm 55:22........2 Cast your burden on the LORD,

And He shall sustain you;  He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.  NKJV

1 Peter 5:6-10....6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.   NKJV

Father, I pray for all who need peace today, that they would be settled in YOUR peace and plan. Today, I pray for all those who are dealing with pain in their hearts, that they would rise up knowing Jesus took this to the cross. As the Great Sacrifice, He came to give us hope in our final outcome. Jesus came to make sure that we would be perfected, established, strengthened and settled, understanding that life is to be lived in unity with You our Father. We pray this in His name, that today, men and women everywhere would be those with eyes open to see the adversary for what he is and that he is a liar. YOU Lord came to give us life and life more abundant. 

Jesus told us in Matthew 10:39 ......39 "If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will save it. TLB

We know that we must surrender everything to God. He instructs us of total self-sacrifice in devotion to God's will. We are told to deny self to gain the spiritual life.  For if we do not completely and wholeheartedly relinquish our life for the higher life in God, we will lose both.  Today, we seek to pray in self-examination asking if we have truly relinquished everything to You our Father. We desire to abandon our former life of pain and heartache. We know this, that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but He has given us His power, His love and His sound mind. Father, for wherever we are not settled in this word, help us to be strengthened as YOU give us Your Word in prayer time, that secret place in meditating Your truth. Help us to say NO to pain and live the life YOU planned for each of us. We thank You we are not alone in pain of the body or the mind but You are an ever-present help in trouble. Amen!

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