No Christian has had an easy life.
The moment you accept Jesus Christ in your heart, your eyes are opened to the
realities of this sinful world and what sin does to your life. You become aware
of your sins and its consequences. It becomes a burden in your heart to know
how much pain you’ve caused in God’s heart. Your past sins hunt you and
sometimes you come to a point when you condemn yourself for making such choices
in your lifetime. Being a follower of Christ is never an easy job. There are a
lot of ups and downs, twists and turns, surprises and even pain; that sometimes
it’s so hard to keep track on things and adjust to situations. But guess what?
When you are in that moment of so much pain and vulnerability, you can become
God’s best when you obey His commands to you. It is in experiencing so much
pain that we become true and sincere in obeying God’s commands. Why? Because we
are driven by our heightened emotion of pain and grief, we desire to make things
better, even for other people. When we help people in their need and obey God
despite our dreadful situation, we find great joy and peace in our hearts. We
put our faith in God because we know there’s no one else we can turn to. This
obedience in times of pain is what God seeks from us all the time. Why does He
allow painful things to happen to us? Well, aside from it being the result or
consequence of our own choices and actions most of the time, He hopes that by
experiencing that much pain, we learn something from it, get to know who He is
and that we would come to realize that there are greater things He can do in us
and through us if we just obey Him. More often than not, the turning points of
our lives are those times when we are most broken and wounded. Those are the
experiences that mold us to become stronger and be more like Jesus Christ. The
purest of gold had to go through a lot of heat and purification process; so, to
be God’s best is to go through a lot of fiery furnace and purification processes.
But all of the pain is more than worth it.
Have you ever noticed that the
most fruitful servants of God are those who had undergone so much pain and
trials? Why? Because they turned their pain into real life testimonies that
tell people who really God is and what He is capable of. Why does God had to
allow that? Because all living people in this world is in great distress.
Unbelievers just don’t feel that much burden because of their sinful nature.
They find it “relieving their pain” if they resolve to earthly and temporary
pleasures. But knowing Christ, the scales in our eyes are removed and we see
what it really is to give in to human pleasures. We feel troubled and pained by
it; but then, we also know of the love of God and Jesus Christ. We find joy and
peace in that. We find happiness that we can’t contain and explain. We find
contentment and satisfaction in just calling out the Name of Jesus Christ. We
find peace and security in His Name. We find everything good in Jesus. And
that’s the kind of testimony God wants to use to minister to other people. Our
lifestyle alone can be of great and life-changing testimony to unbelievers.
Just like what Jesus did during His ministry years, He lived a life full of
wonderful, life-transforming testimonies; that still continues to bring people
back to God, even up to this point in time and in the many more years to come.
So, whenever you’re in the
toughest time of your life, remember that you can still be God’s best and He
can still use you mightily for the glory of His Name and salvation of lost
souls, if you obey Him. Even Jesus Christ had to experience pain and death on
the Cross, though He was blameless and without sin, just so He could save you
from your sins. Use your pain to serve God and He will bless you abundantly.
Your pain will be turned into joy, praising and dancing. He can turn your
sorrows into peace and love. He can make you His best in your brokenness.
Eventually, when you have completely transformed to becoming more like Jesus,
your pain becomes your joy all the time, because of the grace and love of God
for you. Be God’s best in the toughest of toughest times.
Jaea Conde
Nov. 26, 2012
11:46pm
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