Pain

C. S. Lewis once wrote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

True Christianity involves pain and suffering, and for many believers it can be extreme, severe, and life-altering.

Joseph suffered severe abuse and injustice in his life, including when his brothers, who hated him, sold him as a slave to passing Ishmaelites. Yet after his slavery, his unjust imprisonment, then his rise from prison to being the most powerful man in Egypt after Pharaoh, and his subsequent reconciliation with his brothers, Joseph was able to say to them, in Genesis 50:20 (NKJV), "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." Joseph's saw God's hand and God's will and God's sovereignty in his 13-year-long pain, suffering, and injustice.

Isaiah 53:3-4 (NKJV) says that Jesus was "despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ... He was despised ... And carried our sorrows ... Smitten by God, and afflicted." Jesus suffered on the cross. As a result of His suffering, as Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV) declares, "And by His stripes we are healed."

In Philippians 1:29 (NKJV), the Apostle Paul wrote, "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake ...."

Jesus said in Matthew 7:14 (NKJV), "Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

True Christians will suffer in this life, and it may be extreme in nature. But take heart if you are suffering, knowing that Jesus suffered as well, as did Joseph, Paul, and countless other believers and martyrs throughout history. God may be using your pain as a megaphone in your life, but also know that He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is there with you, right in the midst of your most extreme pain and your most anguished suffering, and in the darkest of your most excrutiatingly painful days and nights.