Devotional Song: ... Go to this link … Please take the time to take in a video of the group, Point of Grace, singing the poignant song … Heal The Wound, declaring in song the reality of God’s healing grace, which is always there for any Christian going through the pain of life, … that our Lord will heal the wound even though scars remain from the pains we experience … the beauty which comes from the suffering.
Highlight Passage John 16: 21-22 [NKJV] …
21 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
… Comparing the pain the Disciples would experience from the death of Christ with labor pains
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Highlight Context - John 16: 17-24 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus tries to belay the fears of His disciples in the Upper Room Discourse
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Reference Passage #1 - Matthew 11: 28-30 [NKJV] …
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
… But do we believe Him?
Reference Passage #2 - John 16: 33 [NKJV] …
33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will[d] have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
… Jesus’ promise that, though we will have troubles in the world, He has overcome the world.
Reference Passage #3 - 1st Peter 5: 7 [NKJV] …
7 Casting all your cares on Him because He cares for you.
… Really?! … Yes, … even the worst pains in life?
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by David C. McCasland, opened with a word picture with which any mother would identify - that of the pain which comes in childbirth, … pain which any mother would likely say was “worth it” when they look into the eyes of their newly born babe.
When Jesus was about to go to the cross, which He related to His inner 12 Disciples in the Upper Room the night before His crucifixion in that “upper room,” He did all He could to belay their fears; and in John 16: 17-24, see link above, Jesus compared the pain that the disciples would go through to labor pains, which any mother would know are terribly intense. Yet, most, if not all, mothers would see that going through labor pains is productive pain and well worth the experience when the baby is born.
It is said, by pain specialists and mothers who’ve experienced both labor pains and the pain of passing a kidney stone, that the latter is the only pain which can compare to the former in its intensity. And my wife can attest to both; because it was kidney stone pain which through her into premature labor when our first child was born. And in the intensity of her labor pains, my wife had to endure co-existing pain from the passing of a kidney stone. Well, the kidney stone passed during the labor; and even though it was about six weeks early, our first daughter was born; and my wife would now say that the pain she endured in this process was well worth it. However, during that labor process, enduring those kidney stone pains, my wife said some things to declare which could not be repeated here, indicating that the pain she was experiencing was the most horrendous thing she had every endured.
Well, I would guess that anyone reading here has experienced some king of pain in life [physical, emotional, or spiritual] which, at the time of the experience seemed horrible; but in reflection now, it seems worth it because it produced something which could not have been experienced without the pain. So, as you take in what I have written today, we must do all we can to internalize the truths which are captured in the reference passages from God’s word above, where He promises to give us the empowering grace to overcome the pains of life and this world.
And I will pray today that we all recognize that God only allows the testing of pain to help us grow closer to Him.
My Prayer Today: Dear Lord, help Your faithful, here today, including yours truly, to recognize that You only allow the labor pains of life to give birth to a deeper relationship with You. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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