In Painful Expectation

Wednesday January 15, 2020

 

I have only been in this much pain a handful of times in my life. First –  when my kids were in elementary school and I came down with an ear/nose/throat thingy that the Dr said should have stopped a tank. Second – I ruptured a disk in my back. Third…this viral thing-a-ma-jig.

I’ll be fine. It’s temporary, painful but temporary.

I forgot to be thankful for every day of health I so glibly frittered away until I couldn’t move my neck and my head felt like spikes were being pounded into it. Then I started thinking about it!

I was also thinking about you.

My disk ruptured more than 10 years ago but I learned a huge lesson about pain and prayer that I was thinking about this morning.

I had been in the hospital for almost a week and then restricted movement for 3 weeks after that before I could function. Of course in the hospital they have you pretty doped up so you don’t move and cause greater damage but when I returned home I stopped taking all pain medication. I hated the loopy feeling I had when on the medication and decided that I was going to conquer the pain on my own. In order to gauge my progress I had to be able to feel the levels of pain without artificially turning the signals off through meds.

Please don’t try this. It probably wasn’t very smart.

One day I was praying and reading my Bible, complaining bitterly to the Lord. You know the drill…why me? Why now? Why not someone else? When will it end? I’m suffering, why won’t you take it away?

Blah Blah Blah

I immediately felt challenged in my spirit. The pain in my back was temporary, many others live their lives in pain. Did I want to continue selfishly praying for the release from my pain, or would I use it to pray for someone else?

There’s a special hurt to this kind of pain. It digs in and guts our will to go on. It carves rivers down our faces of hot, salty tears and robs anything but the desire to just not hurt anymore.

It was right there, in that place, that I finally understood what “suffering with Christ” meant. I’m not trying to equate my little back problem with what Christ endured, but it did give me a fresh perspective on the power of pain. The power to either rob everything from us, or the power of communion and deeper faith in Jesus.

Guess what? The message was that I was not to be consumed with my own suffering. There was power in my decision to pray for someone else’s pain. I made a decision that day to pray for those suffering with on-going pain with the intensity of my own. Every time I couldn’t move, I’d pray for those who can’t move. Every time I wanted to scream in agony, I prayed for those in agony. The intensity of my own pain helped me pray with intensity for others.

I felt a closeness with the Lord and the presence of the Holy Spirit like I had never experienced before.

That’s why I was thinking about you, because I recently found myself in a season of pain once again.

The verse I read today was Psalms 5:3 “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice, in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” (NIV)

So this morning maybe you’re suffering. I’ll be praying specifically for you today that the Holy Spirit will comfort your heavy heart. I’ll be praying that the Lord will raise you up to restored health and deeper communion with him. I’ll be praying that as you go through your season of suffering that you’ll use it as a tool to encourage and pray for others who are suffering as well.

In the morning let the Lord hear your voice! This morning the Lord heard my voice calling out on your behalf.

In the morning before anything has transpired in the day, call on the name of the Lord and then wait in expectation for his reply.

Yes Lord Jesus, we wait in expectation for you.

 

reflect…

1. Identify someone you can pray for today that is struggling with a health issue
2. If you were in pain, how would it impact you, knowing that people were earnestly lifting you up to the Lord?
3. Will you meet with the Lord in the morning and lift up your requests to him, and then be patient for his reply?