The main
lesson we must learn about the life of discipleship is that it is a life
of pain. Too often we encounter the message, "Accept Christ and have
a life of peace and joy." Of course peace and joy follow, but
not without pain, and that is where so many Christians grow discouraged
and faint.
The pain that comes to us in following Christ is the pain of change. It is
the change from living naturally to living spiritually. It comes, as
Blaise Pascal says, from the ungodliness that is still left in us.
The greater our resistance to this, the greater our pain will be. The
reason heaven will have "no...more pain (Rev. 21:4) is when
everything will be brought into complete harmony with God's will; thus the
tension of wills, which is the source of pain, will be gone.
Many Christians make themselves unhappy because they resist the pain that
in itself indicates victory. We live miserably because the natural man
loves comfort and ease, and we have an erroneous view of the kind of work
we expect Jesus Christ to do in us. He came to make us victorious, not
comfortable, and victory means the gradual displacing of our natural life
with His triumphant spiritual life.
The difference between a Christian
wallowing in self-ease and one who is triumphant is pain. The comforting
thing about the pain of discipleship is that it is a healthy pain. It is
not the pain of breakdown and death, but the pain of healing and
restoration. It builds and fashions us into the man God intends for us to
be; it develops an incredibly strong character; and it perfects the image
of God in us. "After you have suffered for a little, the God of
all grace...will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish
you" (1Peter 5:10). Thank God for the school of pain! May God
make us a worthy graduate!
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Source
We
also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. ~Romans
5:3 and 4~
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Tim
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