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HopeLives365

Mark Finley

God is Teaching Me Five Lessons Through Pain

The last 5 months have been really unusual for me.

And I wanna talk to you about my journey with pain, the lessons that God is teaching me.

Now, if you would have asked me a few months ago, back in the month of August, Pastor Mark, how's your health?

I would have told you that I'm really doing well.

I would have told you that a previous condition called MGUS is well under control.

The last 5 months have been really unusual.

In September, I noticed a rash on my left hip.

I also noticed a very serious pain in my leg.

When I attempted to get medical care, I was misdiagnosed and the pain persisted.

Finally, a medical physician friend of mine diagnosed me with shingles.

But because I was diagnosed late, I had really a terrible time with it.

When I was attempting to teach or preach, I had to either hold on to the pulpit or hold on to a chair.

After 8 weeks, that was just about over for a week or 2.

And I was giving a Bible study at our new retreat center.

I was on the second floor explaining the second coming of Christ by pointing at Nathan Green's picture on the blessed hope.

As I turned to point out something in the picture, I slipped and fell.

Went down a flight and a half of stairs, hit the railing, cracked my sternum, cracked my ribs, went down the stairs on my back.

They said that there was blood, some internal bleeding.

I was taken by ambulance from that hospital in Haymarket, Virginia to a trauma center.

And fortunately, the internal bleeding was from the external blow that took to my sternum.

It took another 6 or 8 weeks for that to clear up.

And I was beginning to think, Lord, what's going on here?

And then in the month of January, my wife and I said, well, let's go down to Florida, take a little break and do our work from there with COVID-19.

I can do my speaking from a variety of places.

We got here, and 1 day we wanted to ride our bikes.

It got stuck in the door, and I went to twist it, and I heard a terrible cracking in my back, just like somebody cracking a stick, and went to my knees, eventually had to be taken to the hospital and could not move and discovered that there was some damage to the lower back.

And for the last 6 or 8 weeks, I've been getting treatment for that.

At first, a series of injections, then something called an ablation, where they go in and burn the nerves.

The last 5 months, 1 thing after the other, you know, I teased my wife and I said, now, Tini, if God is trying to teach me something, I really wanna learn quick.

I wanna share with you my journey in pain and 5 lessons that God has taught me.

You know, when you're lying flat on your back, you have an opportunity to do a lot of thinking.

The first lesson that God is teaching me is this, that these bodies that we have are very frail.

The Apostle Paul says in Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, verse 7 to 11, the Apostle Paul puts it this way, starting with the 7th verse, but we have this treasure, that is the treasure of Christ, that is the preciousness of Jesus, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." So our bodies are like earthen vessels.

The original language there says cracked pots.

It's really important to keep in mind that our bodies are subject to sickness, suffering, disease, and death.

That health is a gift that God has given us to be appreciated, to be preserved, to be cared for.

Now notice what the Bible says, we're hard pressed in every side, yet we're not crushed.

Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our body.

Here is the first thing that God has taught me through these last 5 months of pain with the shingles, with the cracked sternum, with the ribs, with the back, serious back injury.

God has taught me this, that no matter how good I think my health is, I'm always inches from disease.

No matter how strong my body is, I'm just inches from that next accident.

And what God has taught me is that health is a gift and to cherish it, to value it.

Every day you can take a deep breath, thank God.

Every day you can have another healthy day without sickness, suffering, or pain, thank God.

And if you are going through pain, quote the Apostle Paul that you know that you have this treasure of Christ in this earthen vessel and that we may be cast down but were not destroyed.

Although the outward man is perishing, the inner person can be renewed day by day.

Now, the second lesson that I've learned in my struggle is this, that Christ is always with us in our suffering.

That He allows us at times to go through suffering so that we can comfort others in their suffering.

Our pain helps us to be more sensitive to others who are going through pain.

It deepens also our understanding of the pain that Christ went through.

For example, 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 through 7.

I think this is 1 of my favorite texts in the Bible on pain, on suffering.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts, who comforts us in all our tribulation.

That we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God.

So going through this pain I sensed the presence of God.

When I was lying on my bed, I couldn't get out of bed.

It was so painful that I could not even get out of bed.

If I had to go to the bathroom at night, my wife had to come and help me out of bed.

I would almost fall on the floor because I couldn't get up.

But I sensed that Christ was comforting me in the tribulation.

So that as I minister to others, I can understand their pain.

I can understand what this physical suffering is like.

First, verse 4, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we might be able to comfort those who are in anguish and trouble with the comfort that we ourselves are comforted of God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

Now if we are afflicted, that's if we suffer, if we are going through pain.

It is for your consolation and salvation which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we suffer.

And our hope for you, verse 7, is steadfast because we know that you are partakers of the suffering so you will partake of the consolation.

When we go through sufferings, it teaches us 2 basic lessons.

The first lesson in suffering and pain is this.

We who receive comfort from God are able to comfort others in their suffering.

So pain then enables me to understand what others are going through so I can comfort them.

But there's a second aspect that Paul is talking about in that passage of pain.

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God is Teaching Me Five Lessons Through Pain

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