On the subject of pain

Guest post by Dwayne:

This past week my sweet wife went into the hospital for day surgery.  Prior to the surgery, the area that would be the focus of the procedure was treated with a local anesthesia that would lessen the pain.  Before the surgery was performed, the anesthesiologist administered an appropriate anesthesia so that she would enter a deep sleep during the procedure.  After the surgery, her doctor told me that the surgery was successful and that she was being admitted to a recovery room.  The doctor told me a prescription for pain medication would be given which she was to take once home.  Shortly after, I was told I could go into the recovery room to be with her.  The effect of the surgery along with the wearing off of the anesthesia medication resulted in her experiencing pain.  The attending nurse asked her to describe the level of pain on a scale of 1 to 10.  She told the nurse it was at least a 5.  The nurse left and then returned with a medication.  It was obvious that she was in pain and it took a while for the medication to lessen her pain. 

This got me to thinking about pain whether physical or heart felt that we all experiencing from time to time.  I too had been experiencing physical pain for the past several days possibly resulting from the sciatic nerve.  While reading the Bible and later contemplating my morning devotional  based on Matthew 6:25 and 13:22, and “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, I was reminded that our God knows all about what we experience and the needs that we all have.

Earlier as I arose from bed and the restless sleep I had experienced due to pain, my natural inclination was to ask God to remove the pain or at least lessen it.  After my devotional reading, I begin to think that I should really ask God to use my pain for His glory.   After all our God, incarnate in Jesus Christ, bore pain in His body on the cross of crucifixion so that we could be saved by grace through faith from the consequences of our sin.  That same sin separates a person from God until that person makes the choice to exercise faith and thus begin his or her relationship with God.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”  Matthew 6:25