How Do I Honor God in Chronic Pain?

00:00:00.000 | [music]

00:00:05.400 | Podcast listener John Anders writes in to ask this.

00:00:09.080 | "Pastor John, I've had various physical injuries over the past several years that have drastically

00:00:14.160 | and positively impacted my life.

00:00:17.000 | God has done much through my suffering and sorrows.

00:00:20.400 | How can I most magnify the gospel through my everyday actions in the midst of a debilitating

00:00:25.880 | injury so that others see His glory and come to delight in Christ?"

00:00:31.600 | Well the first thing I want to say is that in asking the question this way, John has

00:00:37.960 | been his own answer.

00:00:40.760 | How can I magnify the gospel through my everyday actions in the midst of suffering?

00:00:46.640 | Whoa.

00:00:47.920 | I mean he's already done it for me anyway.

00:00:50.840 | He's caused me to be thankful for God's grace in his life.

00:00:57.880 | My sufferings have drastically and positively, that's an amazingly gracious word, impacted

00:01:07.000 | my life.

00:01:08.920 | So what can I say to him when he has already been his own answer?

00:01:16.400 | It seems to me like anything I would say here would be building on a very good foundation.

00:01:21.480 | So let me just draw attention to some biblical things that I'm sure John knows and may just

00:01:28.360 | be an encouragement to hear me say.

00:01:31.620 | How can I magnify the gospel?

00:01:33.680 | How can I magnify Christ in suffering so that others see Christ's glory and delight in Him?

00:01:40.840 | He asks.

00:01:41.840 | There are two kinds of answer to that question.

00:01:46.400 | One is how can John maintain his own faith and hope and joy in suffering because without

00:01:54.440 | that he would be of no use to others.

00:01:58.600 | And the other way of answering the question is to think with him about the sorts of things

00:02:03.880 | he might do to help others enjoy what he's enjoying.

00:02:09.000 | So the two halves, how does he maintain his own faith and joy and then maintaining it,

00:02:15.600 | what kinds of things might he do or say that would help others?

00:02:19.780 | So here's my answer to the first half.

00:02:25.000 | John, recall, this is how to maintain your faith.

00:02:31.080 | I mean, you're doing obviously a great job of it, but let's do it more and more.

00:02:37.520 | Recall that Christ, by his gospel work of dying for us and rising again, has secured

00:02:44.880 | all the promises of God.

00:02:47.360 | All of them find their yes in him, 2 Corinthians 1:20.

00:02:51.760 | Second, learn from Paul's own suffering that God's good purpose in it all is that we will

00:03:00.640 | rely on God who raises the dead, 2 Corinthians 1:8.

00:03:06.040 | We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

00:03:12.200 | Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.

00:03:15.800 | That was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

00:03:20.840 | So every horrible thing that comes into our life is meant to cause us to fall on the Christ

00:03:28.200 | who raises the dead and increase in our confidence that we will be raised and we should rely

00:03:34.920 | on nothing but him.

00:03:37.000 | Third, take heart from the biblical assurance that suffering is preparing for us an eternal

00:03:43.560 | weight of glory, in 2 Corinthians 4:16.

00:03:47.200 | We do not lose heart, though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being

00:03:52.240 | renewed day by day, for this light momentary affliction, namely lifelong affliction in

00:03:59.200 | John's case, is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

00:04:07.440 | So take heart.

00:04:09.280 | Everything we walk through is working and preparing and increasing a weight of glory

00:04:15.280 | in the age to come for us.

00:04:18.320 | And embrace Paul's experience that when he asked the Lord to take away the thorn and

00:04:25.200 | doesn't give it, he glories in the all-sufficiency of the grace of Christ, which is what you're

00:04:31.160 | doing.

00:04:32.160 | Three times I pleaded with the Lord that he would take it away from me, and he said, "My

00:04:37.040 | grace is sufficient for you.

00:04:39.120 | My power is made perfect in weakness.

00:04:41.600 | Therefore I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ

00:04:46.680 | may rest upon me.

00:04:47.680 | For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness and insults and hardships and

00:04:53.400 | persecutions and calamities; for when I am weak, then am I strong."

00:04:56.640 | And in those verses, John, we've already moved to the second way of answering the question,

00:05:01.560 | haven't we?

00:05:02.560 | Namely, not just how can you maintain your joy, your hope, your faith, but what sorts

00:05:07.200 | of things might you do that would help other people see and enjoy Christ?

00:05:12.240 | Because Paul just said in those verses, "I boast in my weaknesses.

00:05:17.040 | I'm content in my weaknesses."

00:05:21.440 | And so that's the sorts of things we should do.

00:05:24.680 | We should exult in Christ in our weaknesses.

00:05:31.600 | So I would say maybe here's three concrete suggestions, and who am I to talk?

00:05:37.540 | You know these.

00:05:38.920 | The sheer freedom from murmuring.

00:05:43.500 | So don't murmur against God.

00:05:46.560 | The sheer freedom of murmuring against God.

00:05:51.240 | Paul says in Philippians 2:15, "Is a light shining in a dark place."

00:05:56.440 | If we don't murmur in our lives when hard things come, we are like lights shining, and

00:06:03.600 | that's exactly what John said he wants to be.

00:06:06.200 | And the second thing is give expressions of praise to the goodness of God.

00:06:12.960 | There are a few people in my life, I think of one woman in particular, who lives with

00:06:17.520 | a chronic pain, chronic disability, and I know no one who's more full of praise than

00:06:23.920 | she is, and it is a powerful witness of God in my life every time we're around each other.

00:06:33.640 | So expressions of praise and attributions of the goodness of God.

00:06:39.720 | And the third one I would mention is live your life focused on others.

00:06:46.920 | Don't draw attention to your own injuries or disabilities, but take thought for others.

00:06:53.200 | This is what Paul said is the very essence of the mind of Christ in Philippians 2.

00:06:58.520 | Don't just take thought for yourself, but take thought for others, even when everything

00:07:03.940 | in you may be crying out, "I hurt.

00:07:06.720 | Pity me."

00:07:08.200 | So thank you, John, for already causing me to be more thankful for Christ in your life,

00:07:16.480 | and may God grant you great grace.

00:07:20.480 | As he said, "My grace is sufficient for you.

00:07:22.960 | My power is made perfect in weakness."

00:07:25.160 | May it be so for you and for all of those who suffer.

00:07:28.960 | Pastor John, thank you.

00:07:30.160 | And John, thank you for the question, and thank you for your testimony to all of us.

00:07:34.560 | And I'm thankful for all of you who joined us again on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:07:38.840 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:07:39.840 | We'll be back tomorrow.

00:07:40.800 | God bless.

00:07:41.800 | God bless.

00:07:42.800 | God bless.

00:07:43.800 | God bless.

00:07:44.800 | God bless.

How Do I Honor God in Chronic Pain?

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