“Growing up for a long time I had always had lower back pain issues. But a number of years ago what then started to happen was I was having extremely difficult pains – nerve pain it turned out to be – in my neck. And it was so bad I couldn’t go out of my house for about 6 weeks. Because it just comes out at certain times and I would scream, yell. I was about completing my PhD – so this was putting everything in jeopardy. At the same time there was a ministry that we were hoping we would start later.
Struggling In Pain
We got to a point, myself and my wife, we had invested so much time in studying and all of those things and what was going to happen after. This was probably putting all of that in jeopardy. We weren’t quite sure.
I’d like to tell you that I’ve been delivered from it. No, I haven’t. It’s still there.
Eventually, I was diagnosed with something called spondylosis. It affects my neck – basically my whole spine – it starts from my neck all the way down. So, over the years what has then happened is I have had severe pain in my neck. I get migraines regularly. Back pains. Lower back and all those.
I’d like to tell you that, you know, I’ve been delivered from it. No, I haven’t. It’s still there.
Comforted By The Lord
But what I have found out is, seeing the Lord deliver me in so many different ways – most especially through my sin – and giving me an eternal hope in Christ. I know for instance that I won’t have this body in the new creation.
I still want Him to heal me, but in the time he hasn’t healed me he has comforted me with what I expect to see in the new creation. With a church that he has supported me with. With all the wonderful things – my wife, my family – and so I felt the Lord’s presence and His comfort in that period. In this period! Even though I do suffer in my body.
I still want Him to heal me, but in the time he hasn’t, he has comforted me.
Suffering Doesn’t Have The Last Word
As difficult as it is, you have to submit yourself to the promises of the Bible. We do have to root these promises in truth. The fact that Jesus died and rose from the dead is a historical fact. If you are doubting that, then I would invite you to check it out.
Now if you confess that as a Christian, it’s one thing to confess that with your lips but do you believe that in your heart? If you do believe that in your heart, there are a number of things that says if you are in Christ, then you are a new creation. Now that has not been fully revealed, but that will happen when Jesus Christ returns.
Don’t lose faith in asking God to deliver you from a situation.
So that means that your suffering doesn’t have the last word. That is the first thing that I would say.
Trust God In Your Pain
The second thing is we do serve a God who delivers us from all our troubles as Paul does say. So, don’t lose faith in asking God to deliver you from a situation.
Jesus says, when he is talking about the Lord’s prayer in Luke chapter 11, that if children can ask their parents for bread and they don’t give them a serpent, how much more our heavenly father will give us all we ask for – especially the Holy Spirit. And so, continue to cry out to God. He may not fit in with your timing, but that is where we trust God, because he may have something else in mind. He is omniscient at the end of the day.
Have faith in the character and the person of God.
So, I would say hold onto God. Have your trust and your faith in God. Not always in what God will do, but have faith in the character and the person of God. Because he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, and he will return.
