Joy in Pain

 

  Joy in Pain

“Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.” Isaiah 53:4-5

Joy and pain aren’t two words that really go together. Even recently I had some pain that I had before but hadn’t had in a long time. The last time I had experienced this flare of pain I was prayed over all day long to see that pain disappear like it never existed. It has come back but not as intense as the last time but still that ever present pain that won’t go away has returned. If I sit in it that is when I notice I will become consumed. Weighed down. It can be so heavy. It can feel like it will never end. This time the pain is occurring in my face. A nerve that goes down the right side of my face has become inflamed. I picture MS sometimes as something that needs to remain calm. And this nerve in my face seems to be angry. It can throb and shoot all the way from my lower jaw into the top of my head. It can be still when I am asleep and then wake up to feel like it has been set on fire. A constant burning pain that won’t let go. Jesus is in the pain.

I believe in healing and have received those prayers of healing to never see something again. But I am learning sometimes we get taken back to those places we never thought. Sometimes it seems the prayers don’t seem to touch what is happening within me. The prayers have been many and even my prayers of knowing He has all the Authority and yet it still remains. What He is doing in the quiet is still being learned. 

I woke up this morning to come have my quiet time and that pain was there. Even before opening my Bible I started praising God. Praising Him for the outcome of healing me. Praising Him because He is in control even when the thing is still there. Praising Him because I know He is my Healer even when that full healing hasn’t come yet. 

Prayer is a weapon. Sometimes praying is not in the things we can see but in the unseen. I am really quick to pray over someone but not so quick when I need those prayers for myself. It is much easier to ask over a text than face to face. I sat with my small group last night in a lot of pain. Not just pain but something that was occurring within that pain. Almost stunned to the point of, “God don’t you hear me?” and it was then I asked them to pray over me. Words such as comfort, two or more, repair stood out and afterwards that pain increased. As I left I said one more thing to someone I have grown to love, “If this doesn’t stop I won’t be able to do choir for Easter.” It was there she began to pray those prayers of thanking God for the healing. The confidence she had is the same I have had in my bold prayers as I walked away. I woke up this morning to begin to pray those same prayers. Knowing in the pain Jesus was right there next to me. 

Jesus is in the suffering. Because Jesus is our Joy. The things that don’t make sense are the exact covering and protection he promises. That unseen of believing that healing will come. And praise the Lord my pain went from a ten to a three as I sat here a few hours later from that time spent with the Lord. 

Jesus,

Thank you for carrying our pains. Enduring the cross means for us that you meet us in all of it. Pain is because we are alive. Pain isn’t easy and never will be but we can know that healing comes from knowing you more through it. I can’t imagine my life without knowing you as my Healer. Thank you for being the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul. My soul rejoices in you alone King Jesus. 

Amen