Hebrews 11:16 Instead, They Were Longing For A Better Country--A Heavenly One. Therefore God Is Not Ashamed To Be Called Their God, For He Has Prepared A City For Them.

When we are in pain we long for better times. Quite often, we can long to return to a better time we enjoyed in the past. Like those people in the verse above, we long for a heavenly city. Our longing for a heavenly city is exceeded only by the city God has prepared for us. We cannot imagine the beauty and wonder of what God has made for us. The human mind might try to grasp the magnitude of God and God's heaven, but we cannot grasp His reality in full measure. The Lord has prepared a city just for us. He knows what we go through each moment. God knows the depth of our pain. In His new city, soon to be our new city, we shall never hurt again.

1 Thes. 4:17 …And So We Will Be With The Lord Forever. 18 Therefore Encourage Each Other With These Words.

Forever is a long time. In heaven, forever will not seem like forever because we will have no sense of time. Forever in heaven is free of pain. We think we know what forever means, but we do not know what forever means in terms of our experience on earth. On earth, our pain can seem to go on forever, but the "forever" of pain is the opposite of the "forever" of Christ in heaven. The joy, peace, and happiness of heaven will never stop or fade away. On earth, we sometimes measure "how long" using a form of our pain as our gauge. On earth, we use clocks, calendars, watches, and various other time keeping devices to measure our time. In heaven, there is no need to measure time.

Acts 1:11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

How can we not ask, "But when? When will Jesus come back from His going into heaven?" In our pain, we want our answers. We want our answers because our pain robs us of meaning and purpose in our life. We must affirm each day we are living on earth in order to see Christ in the future, whether the future is one second from now or when we see Him in heaven. We are assured; Jesus will come back from heaven in the same way Jesus went into heaven. In our pain, we have hope. Pain without hope is a form of death. Pain with hope means we can live and breathe waiting in hope for another moment full of anticipation we will see Him.

1 Peter 1:4 And Into An Inheritance That Can Never Perish, Spoil Or Fade--Kept In Heaven For You,

On earth, we must have shelter. On earth, we must protect ourselves and our belongings. On earth, what we own is very temporary, for on earth, things perish, spoil, or fade. However, we are not on earth for very long. In our home in heaven, our Lord Jesus keeps for us our heavenly treasures. In heaven, we have no fear of losing persons or belongings. In heaven, our Lord has kept for us the very best of His blessings and His treasures. Someday, we shall inherit all of what Christ has prepared for us. We shall inherit His wonders, His blessings, and His love in full measure. Let us prepare our heart, mind, and soul this moment for the glory that is to come.

Hebrews 10:37 For In Just A Very Little While, "He Who Is Coming Will Come And Will Not Delay."

What you may be thinking is, "Why hasn't Christ come back already? How long do we have to wait?" These are legitimate questions. In our pain we grow impatient. We want results now, not next week or next year. We must try and look at this verse from the perspective of God. God has no clock or watch. God does not work on our time schedule. What we must remember when we read this verse in our pain is how we are to stay patient and stay full of hope. We must remember we will see Christ when He comes to earth again or we will see Him face to face when we go to heaven. The end result of our faith is always seeing Christ in heaven. Whether it takes Christ two more days or two million years to come to the earth once again, we will not care when we see Him in heaven. We will not be in pain any more. We will be full of joy to overflowing. These wonderful things will happen for us because Christ loves us beyond our ability to know.

Hebrews 13:14 For Here We Do Not Have An Enduring City, But We Are Looking For The City That Is To Come.

All things in this life in this reality either change or seem to disappear. Copper ore from a copper mine changes so much from the time the ore comes out of the mine or ground, one would think the original ore had completely disappeared. On the earth, we do not have what truly endures but we have hope. Some of us have more than hope in our heart for we have a faith so strong we can see a city on a hill…a city lasting forever. Our city on a hill is our home in the future. In our world where things change almost daily, we have what is totally and forever permanent. Our city on a hill has a special place prepared for us by Jesus Himself. In our city on a hill we shall not feel pain, sadness, grief, or mourning. We shall be free. Once and for all, we shall be free forever.

John 14:3 And If I Go And Prepare A Place For You, I Will Come Back And Take You To Be With Me That You Also May Be Where I Am.

When we are in pain we need hope for relief. When we are in pain we need to possess a vision of the future where our pain will be no more. Jesus knows you hurt. Jesus knows the pain of every person on earth. So, what will He do? Will He just sit up there and look down and feel bad for us? Is this all Jesus is willing to do? No, this is not all Jesus is willing to do. Jesus will do for us what He said He will do. He will come again and take you to a place where He is, with no pain whatsoever, for all time. Jesus is our hope for eternal relief from our pain. Jesus is our hope for living in a place where He lives where pain shall never afflict us ever again. This moment, we must wait. We must be patient. However, in our waiting, we can look up to Jesus who gives all hope beyond hope.

Romans 7:22 For In My Inner Being I Delight In God's Law

What causes us delight in our soul? Do we delight in things of the darkness or do we delight in things of the Light? When we delight in God's law, we delight in all the ways and rules God used to make and keep our reality intact. God's law is about the formations and life forms of the earth. God's law is about the beauty of His creation. God's law is about what we are to do and how we are to live a full and grand life before God. Delight in God's law shows in how we live and what we produce from within our soul. Do we produce the things of God or do we produce the things of darkness? When we delight in God's law our life begins to shine like the Light of God.

Romans 13:10 Love Does No Harm To Its Neighbor. Therefore Love Is The Fulfillment Of The Law.

We wage war. Our waging war causes pain and suffering. We even know waging war causes pain and suffering. Even in our personal pain, we wage war against those around us without shame or guilt. Waging war must stop or there will come a time when human beings will no longer inhabit the earth. Waging war against those around us must stop. Waging war is not love. Waging war on every level comes into being because satanic evil is upon the earth. We stop war on every level through love. We stop war in our personal lives by replacing our anger, hate, and frustration with love. To activate love in our life we must pray continually and without ceasing. We must pray for the Lord Jesus to come into our heart and life. We must repent of our every sin. We must cast every part of our being at the foot Christ's cross. Then the really hard work begins. The really hard work begins when we live out the gospel minute by minute.

1 John 3:23 And This Is His Command: To Believe In The Name Of His Son, Jesus Christ, And To Love One Another As He Commanded Us.

There are two commands here. One command is to believe in Christ including believing in the power of Christ to do all things inasmuch as all things are possible with God. The second command is to love one another. We are to accept Christ died for us. We are to love others in full and unconditional ways. None of this is easy if you are in pain. When you are in pain, you are looking for relief of some kind from someone. If the pain is bad enough, you don't care who the pain relieving person is, just so you get your relief. When we are in pain, we can end up believing and thinking in ways just opposite of what Christ wants from us and for us. When we are in pain we must be aware of what the pain is doing against us and we must push against the pain pushing against us. The best way we can push against the pain pushing against us is to look up to God. In God, we find the power to do and be who God wants us to be. In God, we find the power to push against pain and afflictions of every kind. In God, we find we have hope beyond all hope for a life in eternity where infinite peace and infinite love abound.

Psalm 119:165 Great Peace Have They Who Love Your Law, And Nothing Can Make Them Stumble.

Pain can make you doubt. Pain can even make you totally disbelieve in God or in God’s power. So what are we to do when we do not believe because of our pain or because of our afflictions? What we are to do is to use our mind to see the beautiful logic of our God. God’s logic transcends human logic. When we love God and His words, our love for Him and His wisdom really and truly does bring us peace. When we use the logic and wisdom of God, we are prevented from making the kinds of killing mistakes so many people too often make. When we do not love the law of God, we do not have His peace in our heart and mind. When we do not love the logic, wisdom, and power of God’s wisdom, we will not have peace in our heart.

1 John 3:22 And Receive From Him Anything We Ask, Because We Obey His Commands And Do What Pleases Him.

This verse stretches our faith, especially when we are in pain. Our faith is challenged in pain. We will, we absolutely, positively will receive anything we ask. The big question for us is "Can we wait?" In heaven, we will be inundated with MORE then we ask. However, before we get to heaven we must be patient while we are alive on the earth. Our faith transcends what we think is reality. Our faith transcends time and space. Our faith carries us over every mountain and obstacle in this life. Our faith makes all things possible, even making possible the power to receive from Christ anything we ask. However, we must be patient and persevering. We must soldier on minute by minute, hour by hour. We must come against drudgery, pain, suffering, and faith-killing influences from every side. When we persevere we will win out in our most incredible victory of life.

Proverbs 3:13 Blessed Is The Man Who Finds Wisdom, The Man Who Gains Understanding,

The tragedy of our life is not our pain. The greatest tragedy of any life is when someone does not learn, grow, and develop. Truly, a person really is blessed who finds wisdom and gains understanding. Our pain makes us less aware of much in our environment except our pain. Pain is a horrible distraction. When we are in great afflictions, we could not care much about wisdom and understanding. Not caring about growing is what Satan wants for you. Christ wants just the opposite. Wisdom is the engine giving us power to handle the world about us. Those without wisdom do not handle the world…the world handles them. When we have understanding, we have strategic advantages over the chaos trying to destroy us and destroy our world.

Matthew 11:30 For My Yoke Is Easy And My Burden Is Light.

In our pain, we do not think any yoke is easy nor any burden light. In our pain, we unfortunately and incorrectly think our pain, our burdens, and our imprisonment is from Christ. The Truth: Our pain is from Satan. Our burdens are from Satan. Our imprisonment is from Satan. Every bit of pain, suffering, and darkness in our life is from Satan, NOT from Christ. Yes, Christ does call us to carry His burden but His burden is not like the burden of our personal sin and darkness. The burden of Christ empowers us. The burden of Christ gives us a view of the reality of our beautiful eternity. The yoke of Christ does not imprison us. The yoke of Christ liberates us. The yoke and burden of Christ gives us comfort and rest even in the middle of our pain.

John 14:21 Whoever Has My Commands And Obeys Them, He Is The One Who Loves Me. He Who Loves Me Will Be Loved By My Father, And I Too Will Love Him And Show Myself To Him."

Real love for Christ is often hard to find. We want to go our own way, not Christ's way. We want to go our own way for many reasons. We want to go our own way because our pain breaks us down. Our pain makes us do what we know we should not do. Our pain makes us disobedient to Christ's will for us. However, if we are obedient and keep Christ's commands we will see Him. In our pain, we must be both patient and obedient. We must be patient and obedient for Christ has entrusted us with the sacred trust of His love and the trust of His promise. We might be swallowed up in the darkness and pain of the world against our will for a time. However, if we keep Christ's commands and we obey Him, we shall see Him as He is…a being of incredible light, a being of beauty we are not worthy to behold, a being with us now and forever giving us His love and grace.

John 6:40 For My Father's Will Is That Everyone Who Looks To The Son And Believes In Him Shall Have Eternal Life, And I Will Raise Him Up At The Last Day."

The satanic evil causing our pain wants to blind us. Sometimes our pain does indeed blind us. However, in the scheme of all things, God has preserved within us a pair of spiritual eyes. In our pain, the will of God the Father is for us to look to Him with our spiritual eyes. When we look to Him with our spiritual eyes with our heart full of faith He shall give us eternal life. Our pain cannot diminish our hope. Our eternal life contains no more suffering. On the very last day, in the very last moment, we shall not be disappointed. For on the very last day, in the very last moment, we shall be raised up to see the majesty and glory of Christ Jesus standing in our eternal home.

1 John 5:3 This Is Love For God: To Obey His Commands. And His Commands Are Not Burdensome,

Our pain is a burden. However, we have more than just our burden upon us. We have the power of the living God upon us. The power of the living God gives us strength and endurance not found in things or ideas of the world. The power of the living God enables us to carry our burden in a way to glorify God in every aspect of our life. God's commands do not command us to draw attention to ourselves or our plight. God's commands are grounded in love and humility. Becoming the love and humility Christ wants us to become, although difficult on the surface, are easy when we put our heart and soul into being His child. When our own temptations cry out for us to behave in mistaken ways, Christ commands us, even in our pain and suffering, to carry His cross no matter what we might be suffering at the moment.

Hebrews 13:14 For Here We Do Not Have An Enduring City, But We Are Looking For The City That Is To Come.

All things are temporary. Even our pain is temporary. All things change. We change. At some point in the future, we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye into a being suitable to taken to heaven. There will come a time when the temporary body we have now will be changed to a body lasting forever. On this earth in our present reality, we search for what is enduring. We search for comfort. We search for an end to our pain. Christ has for us, this very moment, an enduring city or place where our pain shall be no more. Because Christ loves us, He has built for us an enduring city where joy in an eternal morning shall replace all our tears.

1 Peter 4:14 If You Are Insulted Because Of The Name Of Christ, You Are Blessed, For The Spirit Of Glory And Of God Rests On You.

We hurt. The question we must always face is what do we do as a result of the hurt? Do we permit ourselves to be turned and twisted toward evil because we hurt? Do we permit ourselves to be so influenced by the evil of pain we let the pain take away our ability to choose? Do we let the pain take away our humanity? The obvious answer must be "no" to these questions. Instead of being turned and twisted by the evil of pain, we must fight back against the evil so, at a minimum, we are insulted because we call Christ our Lord and Savior. We must fight back against the evil of pain so someday soon we will be forever immersed in the glory of God in real time where time does not exist. Even in our pain, we are blessed now and forever by having accepted Christ as Lord.

1 Peter 4:14 If You Are Insulted Because Of The Name Of Christ, You Are Blessed, For The Spirit Of Glory And Of God Rests On You.

We hurt. The question we must always face is what do we do as a result of the hurt? Do we permit ourselves to be turned and twisted toward evil because we hurt? Do we permit ourselves to be so influenced by the evil of pain we let the pain take away our ability to choose? Do we let the pain take away our humanity? The obvious answer must be "no" to these questions. Instead of being turned and twisted by the evil of pain, we must fight back against the evil so, at a minimum, we are insulted because we call Christ our Lord and Savior. We must fight back against the evil of pain so someday soon we will be forever immersed in the glory of God in real time where time does not exist. Even in our pain, we are blessed now and forever by having accepted Christ as Lord.

Hebrews 11:25 He Chose To Be Mistreated Along With The People Of God Rather Than To Enjoy The Pleasures Of Sin For A Short Time. 26 He Regarded Disgrace For The Sake Of Christ As Of Greater Value Than The Treasures Of Egypt, Because He Was Looking Ahead To His Reward.

In our pain and trials, we must look ahead to our time of glory in heaven. In our pain, we must assign our every motivation toward the will of God. We suffer many pains because we have chosen the way of Christ. We must not take an easy way or an easy out. Instead of taking an easy out, we must persist in doing the hard work of Christ. When we walk the narrow road of Christ, we will be mistreated. On the narrow road, we will suffer for our commitment to always follow Him. We will be tempted but not beyond our ability to resist and remain holy and godly in His sight. We are better when we are disgraced for Christ than when the world accepts us and loves us because we are living a life of sinfulness.

1 Peter 4:12 Dear Friends, Do Not Be Surprised At The Painful Trial You Are Suffering, As Though Something Strange Were Happening To You. But Rejoice That You Participate In The Sufferings Of Christ, So That You May Be Overjoyed When His Glory Is Revealed.

How do we rejoice when we are in pain? We rejoice not because of where we are now. We rejoice because of where we are going in the future. Our present may afflict us in many ways. We may die in our present time and life as a result of Satan's attacks but even if we die, we shall overcome all things. We must tell the truth. Because of Christ Jesus, because we have turned away from our present darkness of sin, because we have accepted Christ into our innermost being, we are invincible. Sure, we hurt today, and we may hurt tomorrow. However, we shall see a day of great rejoicing where all the souls of heaven sing in His glory for all time. Christ suffered. We suffered. When we take on His sufferings for His cause and because He called us to be His children, His glory becomes our immediate and eternal reality.

Acts 5:41 The Apostles Left The Sanhedrin, Rejoicing Because They Had Been Counted Worthy Of Suffering Disgrace For The Name.

Most of the time, we feel pain because something has gone wrong in our physical body or within our emotional heart. Pain is considered an alarm bell telling us to take notice or take action. However, when we suffer with a purpose, for a purpose, the sting of the hurt may still afflict us but assigning our suffering a purpose gives us an added power we do not normally have. The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they were disgraced for a wonderful purpose...the cause of Christ Jesus. Satan afflicts every person. Every person will suffer a last fatal attack by Satan. Yet, if we have committed our life to Christ, we will be able to take the tempter's arrows with a spirit of rejoicing not possible with Christ being in our heart and life.

2 Cor. 1:7 And Our Hope For You Is Firm, Because We Know That Just As You Share In Our Sufferings, So Also You Share In Our Comfort.

We can find it difficult to share in the suffering of others when we are suffering ourselves. We can find it difficult to show compassion or feel compassion for others if we are hurting too. However, we must go beyond our present hurt and suffering to a place in our mind and heart where we both understand and accept into ourselves the hurt of others. To only feel our own pain is small. To reach out in compassion and love, even when we hurt, is big. What this verse calls us to do is to go beyond ourselves in our thoughts and feelings for others. We move closer to heaven when we place ourselves along side the pain of others. When we come to fully understand the hurt of others, we also can begin to understand the sufferings of Christ on the cross for us.

Col. 3:3 For Ye Are Dead, And Your Life Is Hid With Christ In God.

When we suffer in our pain, we have little real life in us. Suffering drives the life we should have out of us. Pain and suffering from our sin also drives the life out of us. Our new life in Christ is in hiding within His heart until we go to Him on the cross. At the foot of the cross, you can find a new life if you throw away your old life of sin. If you turn away from your old life of sin, your new life in Christ comes out of hiding within His heart. With your new life now out of hiding from within His heart, Christ gives to you a new life lasting forever. Christ does not want us dead in our sins. Christ wants us alive, and without pain forever.

Isaiah 26:20 Come, My People, Enter Thou Into Thy Chambers, And Shut Thy Doors About Thee: Hide Thyself As It Were For A Little Moment, Until The Indignation Be Overpast. 21 For, Behold, The Lord Cometh Out Of His Place To Punish The Inhabitants Of The Earth For Their Iniquity: The Earth Also Shall Disclose Her Blood, And Shall No More Cover Her Slain.

As much as we might want, our pain and suffering are no excuse for unrighteousness. We will not be excused from standing before God. Our pain and suffering do not give us a pass from giving God an account of our life. We have no excuse for our sin and degradation. We will all be called to account before God for our behavior. At this hour, God is not happy about the behavior of people upon the earth. When God is not happy, there are consequences. God will "punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."

Psalm 46:1 God Is Our Refuge And Strength, A Very Present Help In Trouble. 2 Therefore Will Not We Fear, Though The Earth Be Removed, And Though The Mountains Be Carried Into The Midst Of The Sea; 3 Though The Waters Thereof Roar And Be Troubled, Though The Mountains Shake With The Swelling Thereof.

In our pain we may think we never have a refuge because the pain can seem to never stop. For some of us, the pain really does never stop. However, over the span of our little time here on earth, we can have refuge in Christ Jesus. Even now, here on earth, we have Christ who we can count on to be with us. Naturally, we want Him to take away our pain. We want Jesus to take away our tribulations. Of course, we know Jesus does not always take away our pain and tribulations here on earth. We do not always know why Jesus does not answer our pleas and petitions when we think we need them answered. No matter what Jesus does or does not do for us in our earthly life, we know He loves us and He has prepared a place for us in heaven where pain no longer exists. Because we know Christ is our ultimate strength and refuge, we have no reason to fear.