I haven taken much of this entry from a daily devotion I am currently in, and a book I recently read, because they so nearly reinforce my viewpoint on tough times we face and what the proper response to them should be.
We are Built for Opposition !
Have you ever been in the middle of something tough, prayed for rescue, and heard . . . nothing?
Could it be that we don’t always get an answer to our pleas because, sometimes, we need to stay right where we are and learn, there, how to fight? “Could it be that God sometimes allows trouble and pain to train us, to build our maturity, to make us more reliable conduits of his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? We often consider trouble and pain as unnecessary, to be avoided, hindrances to ease and happiness. Might it make more sense to consider trouble and pain as opposition, as a mountaineer views the pitch and the altitude, or as a linebacker views the block and the fake?
We aren’t meant to… avoid opposition, numb it or deny it. We aren’t meant to run from battles, to hide and to let others fight. We’re built for opposition. Truthfully, we’d probably wither without it. We must see it, though, for what it is: ‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 6:12). Our struggle is against being lured into selfishness, indifference, impatience, rage, resignation… These are epic struggles—battles worthy of any man.”
Opposition is not always removed from our lives, brother or sister, because we are built to conquer, not to cower. And we have been given every weapon in God’s arsenal to accomplish whatever the assignment we have individually been given.
The gift of pain…
At face value, the gift of pain is an oxymoron contrary to human nature. This is a peculiar assertion, but on closer inspection a surprisingly logical interpretation can be appreciated if not understood. Yet In the preface of Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Dr Paul Brand makes this bold assertion! Author Phillip Yancey describes the genesis of his communion with Dr Brand which resulted in this publication.
PREFACE
“ …The author had a unique point of view. Whereas I had interviewed scores of people who wanted desperately to escape pain. Brand told of spending several million dollars trying to create a pam system for his patients. -Thank God for pain!” he said. I cannot think of a morc valuable gift for my leprosy patients.
An orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Brand had spent most of his medical career in India, where he made a dramatic discovery about leprosy, one of the oldest and most feared diseases. Careful research convinced him that the terrible manifestations of that cruel disease — missing toes and fingers, blindness, ulcers, facial deformities — all trace back to the single cause of painlessness. Leprosy silences nerve cells, and as a result its victims unwittingly destroy themselves, bit by bit, because they cannot feel pain. When he moved to a high-tech laboratory in the United States, he applied what he had learned about painlessness to other diseases, such as diabetes, thus helping to prevent tens of thousands of amputations each year.”…
In this book I find a special relevancy and can startlingly identify quite closely with the leprosy patients described by Dr Brand. In my case however as a consequence of injury, not via leprosy, my nerve ends have been compromised to the point that I share many of the manifestations recounted in depth by the good doctor. Brand goes on to describe the complexities of the human body down to the cellular level. To the agnostic who believes that nothing is or can be known of the existence or nature of God, and the atheist who lacks all faith, I especially recommend the addition of this volume to your reading list.*****
𝚨nything for A Quiet LifeΩ 