Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. --Romans 12:12
Dr. Paul W. Brand was a noted surgeon and expert on leprosy. He traveled once to London by plane and then took a long train from there to his final destination.
As he was getting ready for bed that night, he took off his shoes and suddenly discovered there was no feeling in his heel. To almost anyone else, this would have meant nothing. But Dr. Brand knew that this numbness was a symptom of leprosy.
Brand found a pin, pricked his heel, but felt no pain. He pushed the pin in deeper until blood showed, but still he felt nothing. All night the surgeon imagined his life as a leper?an outcast separated from humanity and his family.
But the next morning, he jabbed his heel with the pin…and yelled out in pain!
Dr. Brand realized that he had numbed a nerve in his heel during the long train ride, and wasn’t suffering from leprosy. From then on, whenever he suffered any kind of pain, physically or emotionally, he thanked God.
Pain is a part of the God-given consequence to humankind for falling into sin (Genesis 3:16-17). Everyone is subject to pain. However, the New Testament focuses on pain’s partnership with joy.
It was Christ who endured a horrific suffering and pain through His death on the cross for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).
When you suffer in this life, remember that one day, “there shall be no more…pain” (Revelations 21:4), and until then we should rejoice in the Lord for He walks with us through our most painful hours (Isaiah 41:10).
PRAYER CHALLENGE: Thank God for the joy that comes from affliction in this life.
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