The Motivation of Pain

Exodus 8:15
“But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen”

This verse breaks my heart, it's too close to home.

One of the uses of pain is to motivate. Take a hot stove for instance: The pain of my burning finger is to motivate me to move my hand so the damage will cease. This is a God-given response. Even animals have it. That's why my cat will no longer rub up against my electric heater.

Pain also has a future motivator: The emotional pain I would feel for wrecking my family is one motivator to not have an affair. The pain I would feel by getting a disease is another.

There have been times in my life when I have been gripped with emotional or physical pain over one thing or another. During such times, I can become very focused. I can even become more faithful, a better Christian, a better husband, a better servant.

But I have often found that when the pain is gone, I forget some (or all) of the lessons I’ve learned. When I find relief and am more comfortable, I lose my motivation. When I’m not suffering anymore I return to status quo. I believe this is similar to what was happening to Pharaoh.

If Jesus is truly teaching me a lesson on life, it would be true in the midst of pain and outside of it.

The change I have learned is this: when I am in the midst of struggle and pain, I ask God to COMPLETE and preserve the lessons he is teaching me (not only beg Him to get me out) and I write down what I am learning so I can read it later. This is my way of saying to God, “what you’re doing is more important than what I’m feeling”.

The bottom line is this: if God is only in my life so I can get out of the pain I am in, that is no basis for a relationship with Him.

Trying to be obedient to God? Opposition is coming

Exodus 5:7-9

“You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota.”

I have never had a “burning bush” experience but I know one thing: if I intend to be obedient to God, opposition will come; Things will likely get worse before they get better. Take Moses for instance: God told Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh. God told Moses that Pharaoh would not listen. God did not tell Moses things would get much harder for the Israelites before they got better.

Moses’ reply is oh so familiar in verses 22 and 23, “Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."”

As if God needed to be reminded that He has not yet rescued His people!

I tend to think if God is leading me to do something or I am obedient to something in His word that my success is easy or guaranteed quickly. (As an example, look at the life of John the Baptist. If success is getting you head chopped off in prison, then he was successful. Although, he was certainly obedient to God to the end.)

God is aware of His obligations and he will fulfill them but he is not a Cosmic Credit Card to be charged at my whim.

My responsibility is to trust God, to trust his heart, to trust His ways. This is what it means to love.

Feeling Trapped?

Genesis 40:15

For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon. (Joseph’s full story is found in Genesus 37-47) I believe that barriers are nothing to God. This quote is from a man who at that time had spent the majority of his life in literal slavery (from the ages of 17-30).

I have felt trapped where I work, trapped were I live, wanted to take a vacation anywhere with no money to do it. But I’ve got nothing on Joseph. Joseph was really trapped. Not only was he trapped, his own brothers had sold him into slavery. Next, due to his purity, he was falsely accused of attempted rape (by the wife of his boss who wanted to have sex with him, though he refused), left to rot in a dungeon for maybe a decade and forgotten by the people he had helped there.

I wonder if he ever wanted to give up. I wonder if he ever got mad at God.

Then one morning he got up like he did every day, attended to his duties under the prison warden, but today the palace guards showed up. They shaved his face (imagine 10 years of no shaving and minimal cleaning), bathed him, changed his clothes and put him in front of the leader of the world, Pharaoh. Within a few MINUTES he was running the civilized world and within days (probably) Pharaoh had given him a wife. People even bowed before him as he rode through the streets. Quite a change.

In the end, Joseph said this to his brothers (who sold him into that life of hell), “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Genesis 45:8).

My obstacles are nothing to Him, and the worst events of my life can be turned around completely if I remain true to Him.

Awake and Alive

Romans 13:11
”The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber…”

This verse puts to words something that has haunted me for years. I am haunted by the thought that I am walking around in this life asleep even though I am awake. I am numbed by the constant flux of pleasure and “relief” that come from this world by good things and bad things.

I don't want to sleep anymore.

The verse goes on: “…clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful flesh.” (Romans 13:14)

The more I think about myself, my flesh, my life, my needs, my wants, my plans, my goals, the more I meditate on this all day long… the more I am brought into a numbing sleep. This is a sleep where I have no eyes for the Kingdom or concern for His glory; A sleep where I only concern myself with me.

King David said, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.” (Psalm 62:1). I have attained relief from many things but only one thing has brought me true rest. I have found, like King David, intimacy with God is the only rest this world offers.

I fall on my face and call out to God for the only thing that really satisfies: Him.