God's Will in our Pain

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." -2 Corinthians 1:3‭-‬4 

What's the opposite of comfort?  Discomfort...  Unease... Pain...

If we find comfort in God, it implies we have experienced any range of these three.  Perhaps physical dis-ease... Relational discomfort... Emotional pain.  

In fact, it is often said that to be human is to suffer.  This is often the charge levelled against God, that if He is indeed good and loving, then why would He allow such human suffering? 

And that is honestly the hardest question to wrestle through...  Because it's not merely an academic inquiry, it is a contemplation of the heart.  

There is incredible pain that I could never convey, but you could imagine as we peruse the history of humanity.  It seems our world is one injustice wrapped around an inequity.  Warfare, slavery, and exploitation, take their victims en masse. 

Which begs the question... Where is God in this suffering?

But it gets more difficult, because there is also personal pain.  There is the pain of addiction, the pain of losing a child, the pain of a cheating spouse.  There is the pain of unrealized expectations and unrequited loves. 

Again, it seems that to be human is to suffer.

So how does the modern mind find any place for God.  He's obviously indifferent to our plight... Right?

I would agree... If we weren't talking about the God of the Bible.

Because the God of Israel, the One who sent Messiah, sent Him not only to restore sight to the blind, to loose the tongue of the mute, and open the ears of the deaf... He not only sent His Anointed One to restore equity to true religion and make known to the common man the heart of the Father.  Not only did he feed us with bread and speak to our heart's deepest desires.  He was sent to suffer the suffering with which we suffer...

So that...

We might be comforted by God.

You see, the God of the Bible doesn't tremble in the presence of suffering.  It is not some bad mark on His report card.  He doesn't shrink away as if to avoid our wagging fingers.  No...  He enters the suffering.

He redeems the suffering.  What is meant for evil, He can purpose for good.  He can take an object of torture and transpose it into an icon of hope.

In Christ, the pains of this life are not arbitrary, though perhaps without Him they are...  

"For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him." Philippians 1:29

So what pain do we carry that Christ can redeem?  What parts of our past and of our present can we allow God to comfort us in?  

Indeed, this is a supernatural act.  There is an air of mysticism here.  For some of our pain runs so deep and is so profound that it could only be by a miracle that we might find comfort.  

But I implore you to that place.  Approach Him not as one approaches a therapist... Not as one who approaches mere words on a page.  But approach Him as the Sovereign over all, the Great Physician, the Good Shepherd.  Seek Him and find Him when you seek Him with your whole heart!

Come with expectation of a healing... Come with the eagerness of being known.  Cast all your anxieties upon Him, for He cares for you!

And when you have experienced the miraculous comfort of God... Walk in a renewed purpose, because God has now given you a ministry.

Has He healed your marriage?  This is your ministry.  Has He healed you from addiction?  This is your ministry.  Has he comforted you from self-loathing or self-harm?  This is your ministry.

We comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God!

Because God's will is often found in our pain.  He is aware of it.  He cares about it. He redeems it.  He gives us purpose from it...

And in the end, He will deliver us from it!

Our pain will disintegrate alongside the sin of this old order, when tears give way to glory and all strivings cease.  When we fix our eyes on the One who never shrunk away, but entered our pain and bore our suffering.  In that day we shall ascribe endless praise to Him who was rejected by men and forsaken by God, whose sufferings we might surprisingly find a privilege to suffer.  For then, all the dross and imperfection of our humanity will have been purged by the Refiner's flame and we shall see Him and our fellow man as He truly is and as we truly are...  Holy. Holy. Holy.

God's will is in our pain.