PAIN, THE GREAT “PURIFYER”

English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter on 10 September 1734, which points us to know one of the purpose of storms, struggles and sufferings in our lives.  
– “Pain, if patiently endured, and sanctified to us, is a great purifier of our corrupted nature.” – George Whitefield

The perspective which George Whitefield is putting forward is not something new or strange to the Christian understanding of life. God uses the storms in our lives to “purify” us of our impurities, and to shape and sharpen us for His Kingdom’s purposes.

Let us also know that, pain, sufferings, storms, trials, temptations, testings are part of parcel a Christian’s life. They are normal and integral to us, just as breathing is. Don’t you think so?

Sadly though, all sufferings, storms, trials, temptations and testings are hurting and painful. Sometimes the season of sufferings could be like an unending ordeal. Have you experienced such a season?

However, it is important for us to know that, all sufferings, storms, trials, temptations and testings are a part of our Christian calling. God uses the storms in our lives to purify us, just as the refiner uses fire to purify the gold of all its impurities. Have you seen God using the storms in our lives to shape and sharpen us?

God does not abandon us to our storms and struggles. Instead He walks right beside us, and leads us as the Shepherd of our souls, in the face of all our struggles, storms and sufferings.
– “4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” – Psalm 23:4

God can use the crushing pain and the intense sufferings that we go through in life, as an example of inspiration to others in the Kingdom of God, who may be going through times of pain and suffering. God enables us to bring out something beautiful, through the storms and the sufferings that we go through in our lives. The life of Joseph Scriven is one such example.

Joseph Medlicott Scriven was born on 10 September 1819, at Banbridge, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The accidental drowning of his bride-to-be the night before their wedding led to a life of depression. Yet he is also the author of a poem originally titled “Pray Without Ceasing” in 1855 to comfort his ailing mother in Ireland, after she suffered a time of deep personal sorrow. The same poem was set to music by  Charles Crozat Converse in 1868, which is more famously known as “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” – which is a hymn of great comfort, strength and of hope, even to this day, a good 171 years after it was penned as a personal poem written exclusively to comfort his ailing mother. It has comforted countless Christians world over, over these many decades, and it will in the decades to come. Wonderful isn’t it?

God uses our pain to bless others, who are in pain and are suffering. This is the the way we ought to see all that we may be presently going through in our lives.
– “3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Take heart dear brothers and sisters. Be brave in the face of all the storms. God is good to all of us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He stands right beside us in all our storms and in all our struggles. He will use them to shape us and sharpen us. He will help and comfort others through our crushing sufferings. In the midst of all our storms, let us hold our face steadfastly towards our LORD Jesus, our Anchor and our Lighthouse, and walk through the winds and waters, and anything else that may come upon us. Even so, the LORD Jesus help us.