Pain is a necessary part of the Christian life. 

When we enter into grace, we submit to pain for the sake of refining our character to like Christ.

When we experience painful moments, we are welcomed into an opportunity to glorify God through our response.

Pain is necessary and inevitable.

Does this sound pessimistic?

I once heard this from a motivational speaker:

“Something people don’t realize is that pain is inevitable and unavoidable. There is no path in life without pain. Whatever you are called to be, you cannot become it without pain… There is pain in making progress and there is pain in doing nothing. One pain leads to a reward. The other pain leads to regret. It’s all hard, so choose your hard!” (Marcus Taylor, summarized points from Choose Your Hard speech)

Which sounds better to you? 

Jesus asked His disciples to consider the cost of following Him because He knows that as we see more of His glory and love Him, we are going to come to one huge conclusion, “My life is not about receiving what I want, but about Jesus.”

In Christ, it is no longer about getting even with your spouse or friend after they have hurt you, it’s about forgiving them and loving them despite their actions.

In Christ, your career is no longer about reaching the status you deserve and the paycheck you desire, it is about working hard and honestly when no one is looking because you are working for God now.

In Christ, your life is no longer about being as comfortable as possible, your life is now about pushing through every pain to know, love, trust, and glorify God even more.

It’s now about loving people well… and even well-meaning people can turn on you when they are having a bad day, we are called to love anyway.

Loving people, not just one person but many people that have a place in your life, requires a lot of time, which may mean turning off the TV or the gaming console for a week to make sure you have invested the necessary time you need to check up on people, to do something kind just to brighten someone’s day cause you to know they have been having a tough time, to drive someone somewhere an hour away because they do not have the resource you have been blessed with. Isn’t it painful to pull away from the desire to relax after a long and hard day at work? Doesn’t it feel painfully unnatural to sacrifice your 30-minute break at work to check up and encourage one of your coworkers? How painful is it to talk with that person that always seems to have a problem (usually self-imposed by poor decision-making) or the one person that nobody likes because they are “weird”?

These are all worthwhile pursuits, but they all require pain.

Some pains are allowed into our lives by God for the purpose of bringing us to the conclusion that there is a bigger purpose for you than just pursuing pleasure and comfort in this life (that paradoxically brings true peace and joy!). Other pains are self-imposed as we are led by the Holy Spirit to pursue becoming disciplined, becoming forgiving, becoming patient, or learning to love well.

If you have been following this challenge for the last 15 days,

Has it been easy to wake up early enough to spend time with God before your day begins? Has it been worth the discomfort?

Do you feel your commitment slipping as your body starts pushing you back into the normal routines and mindsets?

Have you caught yourself indulging in the things that God called you to stay away from for this 40-day journey and you had to literally rip yourself away from it?

It’s not easy, but Jesus is worth it.

Look to Hebrews 11:32-27.

That is Christianity.

We have to die every day, this is a deliberate decision, and this pain makes us into something great. Someone used by the Master. His will is good, but His will is hard to submit to.

That’s why we need each other!

To apply this today, I challenge you to use the time you usually spend relaxing to help somebody else or to encourage them in some way. I have challenged you to do this before, but that is because we are missing the point if our focus on sanctification leads us to only focus on ourselves.

Sanctification is to look more like Jesus, and He loved people well with His time. This is so unnatural.

If you accept the challenge, consider leaving a comment below about how it went and how it felt! Was it worth it?