A few weeks ago, I read the story of a man who lost his sight after washing his face with boiling water. That man had a rare condition that prevented him from feeling physical pain, so he didn’t realize the water was too hot when he used it. Upon hearing similar stories of people sustaining serious injuries because of their lack of pain sensitivity, I began to appreciate God’s gift of pain.
Pain is like a signal. It alerts us when something is amiss, so we can take corrective measures before things get worse. For instance, when I had dental cavities in the past, I only knew of them because of the sharp pain they provoked. If it wasn’t for the pain, I wouldn’t have sought a dentist and the cavity would have deepened and caused more damage.
I have found that pain also plays a similar role in our spiritual lives. God often uses our suffering to bring something to our attention. It is His preferred method to alert us because we cannot ignore the discomfort of pain. As C. S. Lewis says in The Problem of Pain, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience. But shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
If pain is indeed God’s megaphone, what is He telling us? What is He trying to bring to our attention?
We are headed towards worse suffering.
God may afflict us to prevent us from more afflictions. As a child must endure the prickling pain of a vaccine to prevent a deadly disease, God may allow us to experience a little pain to avoid a greater one. As Thomas Brooks says, “God by lesser troubles and afflictions, doth oftentimes deliver his people from greater, so that they shall say. We had perished, if we had not perished; we had been undone, if we had not been undone; we had been in danger, if we had not been in danger.”
If we heed not the Shepherd’s voice and walk towards perdition, will he not use his staff and rod to bring us back, even if it hurts for a while? God saw it fit to afflict Paul with a thorn in the flesh to keep him from exalting himself (2 Corinthians 12:7). And with one trouble, God delivered Him from more significant trouble. Hence, God may allow us to experience a relatively little pain covered in grace to save us from tremendous suffering. As Tim Keller said, “Sometimes God seems to be killing us when He is actually saving us.”
We are getting too comfortable in the world.
Though Christians live in the world, we are not of the world. Our citizenship is in Heaven, and from it, we wait for Christ the savior (Phil 3:20). Consequently, we must live with an eternal perspective and yearn earnestly for Christ’s return. However, many of us live as though we are not sojourners here and treat this world as our home. So God may bring pain in our lives to make us set our hearts and minds on things above (Col 3:2).
The sorrows we experience under the sun make us long for the joys of Heaven. It reminds us that, “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14); it makes us look up to the sky and cry out, “Maranatha! Come, O Lord!”
God wants us to live with an upward gaze so we can pray for God’s kingdom to come as Jesus taught us (Matthew 6:10), urgently fulfill the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20), not get entangled from things of the world (2 Timothy 2:4), and be ready for Christ’s second coming (Matthew 24:44; 25:13)
We are in rebellion.
God often uses pain to discipline us. So long we live this side of Christ’s return, we will stumble and fall. We will not keep God’s commandments perfectly. And the Lord will use pain to discipline us unto holiness for as any parent knows, the rod often works best.
Hebrews 12:9-12 says, “We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
When we recognize the blessing of God’s painful discipline, like David, we can declare, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” Psalm 119:71.
We are far from God.
Finally, God may let us suffer to draw us closer to Him. When life is easy and pleasures abundant, we tend to forget God and seek not His face. But the Lord our God is jealous for us and wants us in close communion with Him. And suffering draws us to God like nothing else.
It shatters our self-reliance and exposes our desperate need for Him (2 Cor 1:8-9). I for one have sought the Lord most and walked closest to Him while in the valley. As J.I Packer says, “For it is often the case, as all the saints know that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is the greatest when the cross is the heaviest.”
I have reason to praise him for my trials, for, most probably, I should have been ruined without them.
John Newton
There are undoubtedly many more things God may shout in our pain. But we can be confident that His afflictions are always for our good and His glory. Though His hand may be momentarily against us, His heart is ever for us. As Charles Spurgeon said, “God is too good to be unkind, and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”
Pain is a gift from God that helps us grow in holiness. It may not be the gift we want, but it is the gift we need. So let’s thank Him for it always!
