The Prosperity of Pain

Most people that I meet are what could be described as, Pain-Aversive. Most people don't like pain and are not trying to invite pain into their personal situation. This of course makes sense, and is fairly natural as well as normal. However, it may not necessarily be spiritual. I'm not talking about being "masochistic"; I'm talking about operating with most if not all of your mental faculties intact. There is an element of pain that God has actually designed to bless and develop His people. No, it is not something we like, but it is something that we need to learn to embrace. It is the Prosperity of Pain.

You may wonder, how can Pain be Prosperous? I'm sure many of you have heard the old saying, "no pain, no gain". There is definitely some truth in that. There's also the saying, "there's no growth without pain". If you've experienced any type of success or achievement in your life, at any level, then you've experienced growing pains. Physically, as our bodies develop and mature, from childhood to adolescence, and from adolescence to adulthood, we feel the pain of transition in terms of our bodies developing into physical maturity. Then emotionally and socially, we've all had "life lessons" that were hard and painful. Whether it was with our families, or relationships, or on the job or our careers; we've all had experiences that we had to learn from through which we grew and developed as individuals. However, even though we've grown and learned from what we went through, it was still Painful. But you can honestly say that you're a better person because of what you went through. That's part of the Prosperity of Pain.

 What we really want to understand is that part of God's Divine Design for the human situation is Pain. As much as I hate to disappoint you, it is not God's Will for you just to be happy and care-free while you sojourn here on earth. That's reserved for you for Eternity in Heaven. Down here, God has set it up to where we will experience pain. And believe it or not, a lot of it (not all of it of course) is ordained by God. How do we know this? Because that was the Plan for His Son. Jesus came to earth, not just to die, but to suffer and die. His was not a "pain-free" death, it was a pain-filled Death. Look at what The Book of Isaiah chapter 53 (The Message), says about the Suffering of Jesus, "it's what God had in mind all along, to crush Him (Jesus) with pain...and God's Plan will deeply prosper through Him". The Prosperity of Pain is the Salvation of the world! The Prosperity of Pain is our receiving the gift of Eternal Life. The Prosperity of Pain is us being restored to Eternal Fellowship with our God. And saints, as you embrace the pain, the suffering  and the cross for which we all have been called to bear, there will be those who are direct recipients and beneficiaries of your commitment to The Prosperity of Pain.