Pain and Praise

-2 Corinthians 1.3-11-

Scriptures to Consider:

[2 CORINTHIANS 1.3-11] - 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all encouragement, 4 who encourages us in all our troubles, so that we may be able to encourage those experiencing any trouble with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also does the encouragement we receive through Christ overflow. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement that you experience in your patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our encouragement. 

8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about the affliction we suffered in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our power to cope, so that we despaired even of living. 9 Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should no longer trust in ourselves, but in the God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from so great a risk of death and will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us yet again, 11 as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that thanks may be given by many people on our behalf for the gracious gift granted to us through the help of many.

[PSALM 13] -  

1 O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?

    How long will you look the other way?

2 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,

    with sorrow in my heart every day?

    How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

3 Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!

    Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.

4 Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”

    Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love.

    I will rejoice because you have rescued me.

6 I will sing to the Lord

    because he is good to me.

[ROMANS 15.13] - 13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

[ISAIAH 51.12] - 12  “I, yes I, am the one who comforts you.

    So why are you afraid of mere humans,

    who wither like the grass and disappear?

[PSALM 34.19] - 19 The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.

[1 PETER 2.21] - 21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.

[2 TIMOTHY 3.12] - 12 Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

[ROMANS 8.17-18] - 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

[PSALM 34.18] - 18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

Truths to Guide Us:

What does Paul learn; what do WE learn in the middle of PAIN?

1. PAIN positions us to enjoy God (PRAISE him)

2. PAIN has a REDEMPTIVE/REFINING PURPOSE

3. PAIN welcomes us to SHARE our COMFORT WITH OTHERS

4. PAIN causes us to DEPEND on God

Words to Illuminate:

All the [human] instruments [us] employed by God in the promotion of his work, have been greatly tried; their labors have been mingled with their tears; and they have not only suffered from their own personal share of human imperfection, but have found in the ignorance, annoying attitudes, and unholy practices of other, their sharpest sorrows.

-Jonathan Edwards

He who has a ‘why’ to live for can bear almost any how.

-Victor Frankl

Contrary to what I would have expected, I look back now on experiences that at the time seemed especially devastating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything of value that I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence has been through affliction, not through comfort and ease.

 -Malcolm Muggeridge

The cross has demonstrated that reconciliation is a costly business. Wherever the gospel of reconciliation is preached there is a price to be paid in suffering. Christianity does not profess to cure suffering but does profess to use it. Christianity faces it [suffering] by making suffering the means by which healing and rescue were brought to the world, and the…accustomed diet of Christians. To Christians suffering is not a deliberately contrived instrument for atonement… [but the very answer that] by Christ's atonement [it] can be used for redemption and healing, even in the individual's personal life.

-Simone Weil

Grateful people are those who can celebrate even the pains of life because they trust that when harvest time comes the fruit will show that the pruning was not punishment but purification.

-Henri Nouwen