Pain

"I will greatly multiply your sorrow (and your conception)," God says to Eve in Genesis 3:16, but is it just in childbirth that there will be pain? I think not. Our sorrow will increase AND....

"Pangs (sharp pains) and sorrows will take hold ... they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;" (Isaiah 13:8a)

The first mention of pain comes from God as a form of punishment, condemnation to Adam and Eve for their disobedience. This is what will happen. This is how it will be. In childbirth you will suffer. In anything and everything from here to our final going home, our pains will be great, our sorrows multiplied.

Pain comes in many forms. Not just childbirth. Not just surgery. Not just physical.

Each person is under their own personal load of pain and agony. What one suffers is not of less or more importance than another. We may say to ourself that another's pain is minuscule, but who are we to judge? God is well aware of all we undergo. We brought it on ourselves. Mankind's race screwed up at the running gate.

Does God determine pain can be inflicted to prove a point? Is that what happened with Job, who was "blameless and upright, who feared God and shunned evil" (Job 1:1)?

Job suffered physical torment (he had boils), loss of possessions (animals and land), loss of friendship and fellowship, loss of family. Yet he says "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10a)

God's will overrides everything. It is His will to permit, to allow, to prove, to stop, to heal, to release.

"Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed?" (Jeremiah 15:18)
"Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is severe. But I say, 'Truly this is an infirmity, And I must bear it.' " (Jeremiah 10:19)
In these verses the prophet Jeremiah cries out to the Lord. But, I can hear the Apostle Paul say similar things. He too had pain, pain that wouldn't leave him, pain that no amount of requesting from God was going to heal. It was an infirmity and he had to bear it.

"Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow  is incurable. Because of the multitudes of your iniquities, Because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you." (Jeremiah 30:15)

We are destined to suffer pain - at all levels, all across the board. It is a fact of life. And although we cannot ever rid ourselves of it, we have a Savior and a lifelong friend who does not depart from us, in Jesus, who also suffered pain and agony, who obeyed the Father's call, until death.

He prayed.
"Pray that you may not enter into temptation." (Luke 22:40)
"And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:44)

Our pain
my pain.
Should we stay silent? Should we not allow the tears to fall, to fill our hearts and souls?
How do we prevent that which seems to come naturally?

The pain of lost relationships
The immense sadness that overwhelms us
Was it wrong for Hannah (1 Samuel 1:1), who spoke fervently to the Lord from her heart? Her pain too was great - she wanted a child, a son. One she didn't have because the Lord had closed her womb. It was her pain and it made her life miserable. Her husband didn't understand and her peers mocked her.
Yet she remained steadfast in her prayers to the Lord - a plea that if only He would answer her specific request she would give her child back to Him.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 tells us we are to preach the word. At all times we are to be ready to share God's message, to convince, rebuke, exhort others with patience, and in the midst, to endure afflictions.

Perhaps we do endure.
We are not to allow our weariness to cause us to become discouraged. Don't become so weary that we lose sight of Jesus and stop praying, studying, being obedient, rejoicing, living.

"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1a-2)

So, dear Lord, I pray you will help me to put aside, to become less aware of the physical pain, to not allow it  to get the best of me and thus trap me and get me off course, to continue running, with you at the helm and beside me, surrounding me, teaching me about patience toward others who may not understand. You endured it all for us. Oh Lord, help me be more like you. Amen.