God does not promise to take away your troubles, but he does promise to bless you as you persevere. Do not waste your pain. Allow God to use it to mature you and display his strength to others. Let your pain take wing and do something!
God does not promise to take away our troubles.
But he does promise to bless them. Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada where I sure do love talking about your hope and hardship. And one of the most hope-filled things I’ve learned in my hardship is this: God promises to bless your trials. He may not take them away, but if you yield to him, he will bless them. Bless, bless, bless them! Can you believe it? I mean, just consider James 1:12; okay, here it goes: “Blessed are you [that is, happy are you, glad are you] if you persevere under trial, for when you have stood the test, you will receive the crown of life.” Oh, my goodness. Knowing that a crown awaits me if I would but persevere – that’s a pretty big blessing! And there are others. Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not be weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a great harvest if we do not give up.” Oh friend, right there, when weariness makes you want to give up – persevere, would you? Because in due time, you’re going to reap a great harvest. Okay, then in Hebrews 10, it says that our perseverance through trials will be – and here’s the word it uses – richly rewarded. I love that word richly. “You need to persevere,” it says, “so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what he has promised.” Look, if it were not for the struggle, you wouldn't have any strength. Your faith would be weak and enfeebled. Trials are your chance for the Holy Spirit to build your faith, even while it feels like he's breaking you down.
In a beautiful book called “The Rosemary Tree,” Elizabeth Goudge writes of dear Harriet, an old woman who was crippled by arthritis. Elizabeth describes Harriet this way; she says, “Pain accepted was just pain, weighty and heavy, but Harriet believed that pain gladly accepted took wings and went somewhere and did something.” Boy, it’s hard not to cry when I say that because it’s such a simple, yet beautiful description of what happens when we yield to God and gladly accept the pain he allows in our lives. When we embrace it, pain takes wing. It goes somewhere and it does something.
I want my pain to do something. I want my suffering to do something. Because the Bible teaches that, for Christians, pain should be productive. It rises above us, as if on wings, and it goes somewhere; it does something. It glorifies God. It testifies to his grace. It sanctifies us. It blesses others. It adorns the Gospel. It gives authority to our witness. It matures us. And pain, when gladly accepted, shows us things about the Word of God that you would never, ever grasp otherwise. Martin Luther said that there were some Psalms he never understood until he was afflicted. And I would say the same. God’s ways were not my ways until I embraced Christ in my pain. And then I saw things in the Bible that before, I would’ve glossed over. So let me ask you a question.
Is your pain productive? Does it do something? Does it go somewhere; that is, does it widen your influence, the scope of your witness? Does it reach other people? Do the hard-won lessons of patience or perseverance benefit others? Bless them? God does not promise to take away your trouble, but he does promise to bless it. So in what ways does your pain bless you? I trust that you find these words helpful and hopeful. And remember, we have all sorts of resources to help you discover and embrace those blessings that God has in store for you in the midst of your trials. You are not alone. At Joni and Friends, we want to share Christ’s hope in your hardship. So reach out to us today at joniradio.org
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