No Pain, No Gain

Pain, as unpleasant as it may be, always serves a useful purpose. When you experience pain in your natural body, your immune system knows to send help and healing to that pain. The nerves are vital for serving this purpose. Emotional pain works much the same way. Tears should never be avoided, nor should they be used to exploit or manipulate. Likewise, anger, depression, fear, when they exist, should not be hidden or ignored, nor should they be surrendered to unequivocally. We all know the expression, "I think I hit a nerve", meaning I think I just discovered a sensitive area in another person -- and for most of us, our subsequent reaction is to steer clear of it. God forbid we deal with it. But we need to hit the nerves. If we don't, the help will never know to come, and the wounds will never be healed.

As a child I knew a little boy who was a hemophiliac. He died very, very young. When a person has hemophilia, their blood fails to clot when they are injured, and they can easily bleed to death. Knowing how often kids bump and scrape themselves, you can imagine the terror his parents lived with every day. Few hemophiliacs ever make it to adulthood. People of the Blood (of Christ) should take a valuable lesson from this. We are often referred to as children in the Scriptures. We are constantly bumping and bruising ourselves. Our Body is bleeding continuously, but this is actually by design and should not be a problem unless we just ignore it and let it bleed. Instead we are supposed to acknowledge the bleeding, spread the word to those close enough to help, and bind together to stop it. And we must be systematic about it; not emotional or judgmental. This is simply part of our daily functioning and maintenance on the earth, not a character flaw.

Can you imagine stepping on a nail and then feeling embarrassed or ashamed of yourself? Would you just put a shoe on and try to pretend that nothing had happened? Would you expect someone else to do so, or criticize them for their pain? Or on the other end of the spectrum, would you start screaming hysterically and saying your goodbyes to your friends and family members? We inherently understand that all of these reactions are completely inappropriate in the natural/physical realm. So why should we think they are appropriate in the spiritual realm?

The Word says that what is hidden shall be revealed. The world would have us believe that what happens in Vegas can stay in Vegas, but sorry folks, this is a spiritual and natural impossibility. Eventually the light will shine so bright that absolutely everything will be exposed by it. Wouldn't it be better then, to deal with it now, voluntarily and with the right attitude, than to have it sneak up on us at the worst possible moment?

It's time for us to grow up. It's time to stop masking our symptoms (and sins) with unhealthy medications, allowing problems to worsen and spread to other areas. It's time to let the Body function as it was designed to function. It's time to start eating the food that was created for us, not the chemical-laden, disease-causing, mood altering counterfeit stuff that's constantly paraded before us.

Only when pain is revealed can the solution to that pain be unleashed. Healing always comes. It's the Master's design. It's just a matter of how long we want to suffer before giving in to it.

Matt. 20:30-34

30 And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”
31 Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”
32 So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
33 They said to Him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.” 34 So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.