Purposeful Pain (Part 1)

365 Days of Growing Together 
“Under Construction”

Deuteronomy 9: 21 (NLT) – “I took your sin—the calf you had made—and I melted it down in the fire and ground it into fine dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.”

Hi WR2W, have you ever wondered why you have endured so much pain in your life?  Why me?  That was the famous question, especially if you felt like you were doing everything God wanted you to do.  You treated people with kindness, tried to help everyone you could, nor did you do anything to cause others harm.  But then there were others who did everything under the sun, and on top of that, they were not nice and caused harm every time you looked around, but these were the people who appeared to be prospering, in good health, and pain did not appear to be what they were suffering.  Well, I know I am not the only person who has ever experienced these types of thoughts.  Many years ago, I would ask God, why me?  Then I would go as far as to compare the type of person I considered myself to be to the type of person I concluded in my mind was not so good and appeared to be reaping blessings.  Blessings, I obviously did not think they deserved based on what I would consider now as a judgmental mindset.  As if I was the One who died on the cross and was granted the power of being the Only Judge and Gift-Giver!

 WR2W, often times, we do not realize we are judging others because we have become so self-righteous.  Many may not agree, but in my opinion our self-righteousness is connected to our level of pain and what we feel we deserve and do not deserve, when in actuality, we need to evaluate ourselves and surrender it all (thoughts, actions, feelings, and will) to God.  Today, I want you to evaluate your level of pain and give it a number from 1 – 10.  Then I want you to take your number, for example, if it is 10, and write 10 things you feel is causing you the most pain and burn the paper when you are done.  As you stand there and watch the paper burn, begin to pray and ask God to uproot the cause and cast the dust of it into the depths of the sea that you shall no longer have remembrance of it.  Once you have completed this part of the process, then I want you to look up to heaven with your arms raised up and opened wide and say God not my will but let Your will be done in my life.  Now, believe in His will for your life and trust Him to bring it to completion! 

 How do you feel?  Do you feel lighter, the same, or nothing at all?  The answer to this question determines the next step of your process.  I want you to write your answer down and think about it.  If you feel lighter, write down why you think so.  If you feel the same, I want you to take a deep breath and try it again, but this time think about all the pain you have felt and/or currently feeling, and exhale as you are letting it go in the fire.  If you feel nothing at all, I want you to begin to pray and ask God to help you embrace the exercise, teach you how to feel Him during the exercise, and reveal the pain which has caused you to become numb.  Then repeat the process.  The purpose of this exercise is to teach us to let go of the calf (the graven image, our will) we have made and say yes to the will of God.  Do I think this is easy, no, but do I think it is worth it?  Absolutely!  I encourage each of us to spend some time doing this exercise as often as needed and spend time with the Lord as we meditate on His word day and night (Psalm 1:2) because in the midst of all our pain, God is developing our purpose and it shall be revealed.  I look forward to next week as we continue to discuss “Purposeful Pain”.  I love each of you, be blessed, be encouraged, and be true!

Signed,
To Be Continued…