Yesterday at The Gathering we started a brand new series entitled, “When You’re Going Through Hell, Don’t Stop!”
It’s really a series that helps us look at the problem of pain. Yes, it is a problem. Let me tell you how. Number one, life is painful. We all kind of accept that and have owned up to that idea. But, number two, and here’s the problem: life with God is also painful.
I don’t know how many of you were promised that if you love Jesus, walk with Jesus, and obey Jesus that somehow you would be immune or dismissed, or above the painful experiences of life. Well, the truth of the matter is, life with God is painful. You can’t avoid that. It’s right in your face. And the Scriptures don’t avoid it either. Although it seems that sometimes there are those who have been charged with teaching the Scriptures who have somehow reinterpreted this truth.
Here is the truth. Everyone walks through the fire. But not everyone gets burned. Who are those who walk through the refiner’s fire and are not consumed by it? Those who understand that God has a purpose in the pain they’re going through.
Yeah, it’s as insane as cancer is, the death of a child, or divorce, your husband cheating on you, or being fired from a job that you’re great at and you’ve invested decades of your life. These are all hellish moments. And yet, God is there in the midst of that pain. And there’s a purpose.
So in this series we’re going to be talking about the process that we go through when pain works its divine business and morphs us and grows us and changes us into the image of Jesus Christ, the One that we worship.
In this series we’re going to be talking about how to face temptation and understand what temptation is all about; why tests come and where those tests are aimed in our lives. We’re going to also deal with trials. As a matter of fact when you go into a painful situation you can ask yourself, “Is this a test, a trial, or a temptation?” It may be one of the three or a combination. But the truth is, God is at work bringing about something beautiful, necessary, and redemptive in the pain.
Listen today to the first installment and find out that there truly is a point to the pain.