Turning Pain Into Gain

Pain comes in many forms and fashions. Physical pain, mental pain, spiritual pain, and emotional pain. The truth is that each person on earth is either dealing with pain, dealt with pain, or will deal with pain in the future. The list could be a mile long of the sources of pain. It could be divorce, abuse, loneliness, abandonment, losing a loved one, etc. How we deal with pain will determine where we end up in life.

I love the story of Joseph. Many people focus on the beginning of his life story or the end. The beginning is Joseph receiving a dream that he would one day be great and others would bow down before him. The end of his story is Joseph being in a place of great authority and saving the day. We must focus on the middle of the story. Joseph went through much pain!

First, his brothers hated him. They hated him so much that they cast him into a pit and then sold him into slavery. After Joseph ends up in a foreign land as a seventeen year old slave, he is then lied upon and placed into prison. Joseph spends the next thirteen or so years in a cold dark dungeon that he didn’t deserve. All that Joseph did was where the coat of favor from his father and share is God given dreams. I don’t know about you but I believe this would cause some serious pain.

Joseph pursued God through his pain and God was with him every step of the way. Joseph eventually came through his pain and said, “What you meant evil against me, God turned for my good.” (Genesis 50:20).

Here are a few points about dealing with pain:

1.      Your pain will either propel you to a platform to minister to others or it will paralyze you.

a.      God allows our pain so that we can be healed then minister to those in pain.

b.      The devil will try to wound you where God wants to use you.

c.      I know people who have been paralyzed by their pain. The still live out of a bad experience that happen twenty years ago.

d.      You and I can choose to be a victim or victor.

2.      Don’t Quit in the Pit

a.      God allows pits in our lives so that we can minister from a “deeper level”.

b.      If you quit in the pit, you never reach the palace!

3.      Be thankful for the process of pain

a.      The butterfly struggles in the cocoon. His struggle to get out is what gives him strength to fly. If you bail him out he never flies.

b.      The struggle builds his muscles to fly across a yard in seconds that would’ve taken him days to crawl.

c.      Don’t always curse your crises! It may be allowed by God to strengthen you to fly!