To the soul afflicted.

Dear afflicted soul;

▪︎ I would like to foremost affirm that there is a lot of pain in the world. I do not know what assails you, but I do acknowledge that pain and suffering are real. Even so, I truly, firmly and continually believe that what hurts humanity most is a false picture of God. In your time of distress, what ideology of God do you bear? Is He indifferent to your pain? Is He the inflictor of it? If this is our backdrop, then we bear more pain than we ought.

I implore you to inform your perception of God by His own testimony of Himself(that is His word). His word says; He pities us and understands us (Psalm 103:13, 14), He bears our grief and sorrows (Isaiah 53:4), etc… A correct knowledge of God- intellectual and experiential- is your first and fundamental step to healing.

▪︎ “We suffer because we must?” Well, I agree and I’ll explain; when the Israelites set off from Egypt under Divine guidance, they we led down the path through to the wilderness. And inspiration records:

The path where God leads the way may lie through the desert or the sea, but it is a safe path. PP 290.3

When we have made the Lord our guide, He does not say the path will be painless, but it will always be safe. The promise is that the fire is not to consume but rather to refine. Our trials are God’s workmen in the refinement of our character after His likeness, but they are metted out through sieves of grace that we are able to endure. If God has led, the path is safe; go forward!

If tribulation and pain are a necessary element in redemption we must anticipate that they will never cease till God sees the world to be either redeemed or no further redeemable. God, who foresaw your tribulation has specially armed you to go through it; not without pain but without stain.

▪︎ Lastly if we are all to be honest; we do not desire non-existence, we desire to exist without pain. We actually do not get to enjoy the luxury of death and what that means is we only appreciate joy and rest in consciousness. And guess what, God is working on it. He says:

KJV John 10
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Holiness and happiness are inseparable. God has to work out in us righteousness fully if our joy is to be full. Cooperate with God; Be patient with God.

Friend;

Jesus prophesied pain but promised peace,
He assured for your trials an insured triumph,
There’s a glory after this groaning.

Hold fast.