Dealing With Pain

This is the final post in our series on the emotional, physical and spiritual pain each of us deal with in our lives on a regular basis. If you have missed any of those posts, you might want to go back and read them here:

1. How our own sins cause pain in our lives.
2. How the sins of others cause pain in our lives.
3. How Satan causes pain in our lives.
4. How free will is connected to pain in our lives.
5. How the fall of mankind in is connected to the pain in our lives.

While we have clearly established that much of the pain in our world is caused by sin, what are we to do about it? We know that sin really does hurt us, whether it is our sin or the sin of others. We know Satan is real and is working hard to hurt people as well. But can our faith really help?

Though some people may not want to admit it, faith really does help us find relief from pain and discover happiness and joy in our lives. In fact, our past pain can help us assist others who are going through similar types of pain. The apostle Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, where he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God (HCSB).” Paul is reminding us in this Scripture that our own pain can be used by God to comfort other people who have experienced similar pain. However, for that to happen, we have to know God and trust that He works through the painful experiences in our lives to bring about the ultimate good. When we realize that, our past pain can become a powerful ally in our efforts to help others. It is the comfort that we draw from our faith that helps us overcome pain in our lives. Those who have no faith must endure the same pain as everyone else but without the help of God. Therefore, it makes sense for us to encourage as many people as possible to find a meaningful faith in God.

Now, some skeptics would like to argue about whether faith really does help us deal with the difficulties of life. We will look at the scientific proof that faith helps us deal with the pains of life more effectively in my next post.

Adapted from Dr. Dorsett’s book, Mission Possible: Reaching the Next Generation through the Small Church, published by CrossBooks, a division of Lifeway Christian Resources.