Philip. 4:4 Rejoice In The Lord Always. I Will Say It Again: Rejoice!

When we are in pain, the word "rejoice" can ring hallow. However, we must look beyond the mere human meaning of the above verse. The above verse does not tell us to rejoice about conditions in our life at the moment. The above verse does tell us to rejoice in the Lord. When we think about God, when we think about how God is love, about Christ coming to earth to save us and take us into heaven to be with Him, then we can begin to get an inkling of the meaning of the Apostle Paul's words. In the fullest meaning of the verse, we can rejoice in our suffering because we are valuable enough to Christ we are being attacked by Satan making us hurt. We can count as gain how Satan is trying to make us lose or Satan has caused us to suffer loss. In a magnificent supernatural sense, we can always live in a state of joy because the Lord blesses us and keeps us. We can rejoice because we are loved and forgiven by God. We can rejoice because our future in eternal heaven in assured. No matter how difficult our present life may be or may become, we have another life waiting for us just beyond the clouds. Praise His Name. Amen.

Col. 1:5 The Faith And Love That Spring From The Hope That Is Stored Up For You In Heaven And That You Have Already Heard About In The Word Of Truth, The Gospel

If there is anything we need, then we need faith and love. Even more than a relief from our pain, we need faith and love. We are able to possess faith and love because we have hope. We have a certainty Christ will wipe away every one of our tears. We have hope, faith, and love because the words of Christ are written for us in His scripture. Our hope gives us a picture of our future…a picture so sweet and full of life we have difficulty even trying to grasp the full extent of our future days. Our hope gives us a picture of our life to come when our life is full of love…the purist love that could ever be. Our hope gives us an enduring real life time when we will not have to live in the valley of tears we call this present earth and time. Christ came to earth to give us faith, hope, and love. In Him and through Him, we have a future when faith, hope, and love become our reality.

Psalm 37:25 I Was Young And Now I Am Old, Yet I Have Never Seen The Righteous Forsaken Or Their Children Begging Bread.

There are many advantages to being righteous. When we are in pain and suffering, we are weakened and can be easily tempted away from being righteous. We must maintain our self-control and self-discipline at all costs. Being righteous in the face of pain and suffering is difficult because pain and suffering eats away at our heart and soul. We must let ourselves grow old in wisdom. We must live each minute, minute to minute, in order not to fall away into sinful darkness. We must have daily conversations with Jesus to maintain our balance in a world gone badly astray.

1 Peter 1:8 Though You Have Not Seen Him, You Love Him; And Even Though You Do Not See Him Now, You Believe In Him And Are Filled With An Inexpressible And Glorious Joy,

No matter how much pain we are in, we have resources. We may be helpless but we are not totally helpless. We may be attacked from every side, but we are not without weapons. We are not helpless or defenseless because the living Christ and His power are within us. Because Christ and His power are within us, we are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy. Even in pain, our joy, although diminished, is still very real. No matter how much of an attack the pain may bring, we shall not be defeated because we have the joy of Christ who brings us everlasting life. We are often baffled by the mechanics of how the love and joy of our faith can be of assistance to us. Although we may be baffled, the reality of the love of Christ and His power overcome things of the world like our pain. We may not have scientific explanations for the power of Christ. We may not have clinical medical reasons for how Christ, God, and prayer work in our life. However, even without reasons, two thousand years of testimonies by persons whose life has been changed, and whose pain has been lessened, stand as clear evidence of what we know to be truth.

1 Thes. 3:3 So That No One Would Be Unsettled By These Trials. You Know Quite Well That We Were Destined For Them.

Each of us has the ability to make decisions. Even in pain, we have the ability to chart a course of action in our life. We have the ability to respond with love, caring, and compassion in the face of influences trying to make us respond with hatred, a lack of caring, and a heart absent of compassion. Those of us who have chosen Christ, whether we are in pain or not, must understand we will have trials put upon us by Satan. We must remember Christ has a destiny for us, His chosen destiny. We have a destiny to be with Him in paradise forever. Our fundamental question in life is…will we strive to reach His destiny for us? No matter what trials we face, we are not alone. Just as Christ faced the trials of going to the cross, so also must we face our trials. No matter how difficult our life may become, we must not turn away from Christ. For two thousand years, those of us who have followed Christ have persevered through sometimes unimaginable suffering and persecution. However, we are not ashamed to call Christ our Lord. We are not ashamed to walk His path. We are not ashamed to fulfill His destiny for us…His destiny calling us to be holy, godly, and devout.

Romans 15:13 May The God Of Hope Fill You With All Joy And Peace As You Trust In Him, So That You May Overflow With Hope By The Power Of The Holy Spirit.

Hope is our godly fuel of life. We persevere through our pain because we are filled with hope for a better day and a better eternity just ahead. Our pain does not get us down when we are full of hope. If our pain does get us down, we can refuel with hope. We can refuel with hope because the Holy Spirit is the power giving us the inspiration of hope. When the adversities of life seem to overwhelm us, the power of the Holy Spirit is with us showing us there are better times ahead. The power of hope is a gift from God. Without hope, the human race would have long descended into a dark abyss. Each of us must battle against the dark powers wanting to destroy all human beings. However, with the power of God's love becoming real because we have the Holy Spirit with us, the darkness is replaced by the light and love of God.

Luke 14:27 And Anyone Who Does Not Carry His Cross And Follow Me Cannot Be My Disciple.

Jesus is telling us we must bear up under our pain and adversities. Not only must be bear up under our adversities, we are to follow Him at the same time. We are not to wilt under the load of our life. We are to remain strong, even in pain, and walk His narrow path. To be a true follower of Jesus means we make no excuses…we pray continually for others…and we move forward no matter what the cost might be to us. Certainly, those of us who live in pain have real reasons why we might wish to quit or give up, but we must not quit. If Satan won every time Satan delivered a blow against us, Satan would have already won the world. Your life rests in the hands of God yet Satan tries to get you to turn away from God. No matter what kind of temptation you face, no matter what kind of past mistakes you have made, no matter what kind of pain you carry now or in the future, God loves you beyond measure. Because God loves you beyond measure, He needs you to never walk any other path than His path.