BIBLE VERSE about PAIN and SUFFERING

Of all the Bible verses about pain and suffering my favorite quote are the words of Jesus himself that Matthew 11:28-30
quotes: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest until your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."


How we deal with our pain and suffering is the result of how we perceive it and the reason for it. Jesus is ministry was filled with many setbacks, rejections and painful times, yet at the end of His life here on earth He continued to forgive others of their faults and ignorance. His perception of pain and suffering was that of an easy yoke and a lighter burden. Even in the face of much strife and suffering he continued to make away where there seemed not to be one.

In this Bible verse about pain and suffering he instructs us to learn how He himself managed to shoulder the burdens because he knew better than any other that this world was going to continue to bring challenges to Christians on a daily basis. He also reminds us that while we are in this world we are not OF this world. He does this so that our perception of day-to-day struggles should be looked at through His eyes and with His nature.

We should constantly remind ourselves that we should not allow the obstacles that are thrown in our path to skew our perceptions and well on the problem without taking them to the problem solver, Jesus Christ. His goal was to make our pain and suffering lighter and our yoke in life easier by learning from him, leaning on him and most of all excepting the salvation that he offered us.

GOD'S PLAN FOR ME

Here’s my favorite Bible verse regarding God’s plan for me Jeremiah 29:11 tells me, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."


I should have this inspirational Bible verse pasted on my bathroom mirror, refrigerator,etc. so that I will be reminded that I am not in control and to look for God's guidance before jumping in and pushing forth with my own will.


I’m hard headed and don’t always stop to pray about what God’s plans might be. Whenever I have a goal and I fail to reach it there are times when I have immediately set about trying to figure out a way to fix it and when that doesn't work I might take off on another track that would “work”.

And then I might begin to rack my brain to solicit help from a friend or family member who might be able to help me solve the problem. Never mind that the persons help whom we seek may not have any experience whatsoever in solving the type of problem that I'm having; they are available they are willing and by this time I'm desperate so their help is better than nothing at all. Right?

Recently I was going for just such a situation where I had stored a large number of things in a rented storage facility. Realizing that I had no way to lock the door I went in search of a good padlock at my local hardware store. I had to spend a little more money but the lock that I bought was one of the most secure that they had for sale and it serves the purpose as it kept my belongings safe.

My sister was about to move into her first apartment so I invited her to come for a visit and go through my storage unit to see if there was anything that she could use. After she arrived I went to get the key so that she could unlock the unit. I always kept the key on one particular key ring however I had recently given another friend permission to look through the stuff stored inside and when I went to find the key for my sister it was not where I had thought it would be. Apparently when my friend brought key back I had stuck it in a drawer somewhere. Since my sister was only going to be in town for a limited amount of time I had the brilliant idea of borrowing some cutters and simply cutting the lock off.

Long story short, this plan failed so we started to search for the padlock ski once again and luckily found it. We headed to the storage unit once again with key and hand ready to open the padlock only to find that our great idea of using cutters had damaged the lock and key would only partially open it.

A passerby suggested that he could go and get an electric saw and cut the lock off which seemed like a good idea until the lock ate the blade. The lock was still holding tight although it now had several dent in a couple of scratches that the saw blade had made.

I realize that the only option left to us was a locksmith who would charge a substantial fee. It was around this time that I realized if I had not been so impatient, given up and pushed forward rather than continuing the search for the missing key in the first place we might have opened the storage unit with no problems.

It struck me that I often deal with God’s plan for me in the same manner. When He puts a plan or a project in front of me to guide me with the least amount of suffering pain and frustration often questioned the conditions or the timing and end up second-guessing God and sabotaging things.

I often let individuals and circumstances intrude that are not good for me because I become desperate or impatient. Sure, there are times when I do get the desired results but my impatience can create much unnecessary turmoil. When I jump ahead of God’s plan for me just because I'm too lazy to work through things or because I am in a hurry to make things happen I create chaos.


Jeremiah 29:11 tells us”’ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”


God's plan for me is to show me the way to go and if I manage not to get in such a hurry that I try to outguess God it will save me time, frustration and as illustrated in the example I wrote about in this article, money.