You step on something sharp. “Ouch!” You lean against a hot curling iron. “Hey!” You get a blister from raking leaves all day. “Ooh!”
Pain. I’ve sometimes wondered why God created us with an ability to feel pain. It really hurts. Pain is not a pleasant experience.
Yet, the more I learn, the more I realize that pain is a gift. It’s a God-given mechanism that alerts our body to something that is wrong. The “pain sensors” all over our body provide a type of feedback system to our brain, alerting us to sensitive areas that have been damaged or injured.
Does pain have a purpose? Did God goof up when he created us to feel pain?
Take a look at Leprosy, known today as Hansen’s disease. This condition attacks the nervous system, disabling the body’s ability to feel pain. “Great,” you would think. “No more pain. No more back aches.” The problem with this condition is that a person cannot feel the pain of an injury and, therefore, they become susceptible to further damaging a hand, a foot, a finger, a leg or an arm. The damage is worsened because the injured person can’t feel how injured they are.
Pain is part of the healing process. We guard a scrape on our leg, limp to avoid stepping on an injured ankle, bandage an infected finger that is tender to the touch. Our pain sensors are screaming for time to heal. Yet, a person who can’t feel pain complicates their injury by not allowing it to heal properly. Without pain, the damage only gets worse.
Panic attacks involve pain–emotional, spiritual and physical. For some, there is a physical chemical imbalance causing these attacks. For others, the pain is rooted deep in a past full of hurts and haunts. Yet for others, the pain may be spiritual, directly related to the unseen world around us. The pain of panic, like an injured hand, should force us to look at what is causing the pain, so that we can take the proper steps towards healing.
This week, I encourage you to find the purpose for your pain. God desires that you walk in freedom and peace. Pain is one of God’s ways of pushing us to that place of healing. Call out to God in prayer. Seek him for your pathway to peace. When you call to him in Jesus’ name, he will answer. He is a Father who cares for his children more than you can ever know.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
Prayer: Father, I don’t like experiencing pain, but it has a purpose. Lord, reveal to me the cause of my pain that I may dig down into those roots and remove them. Keep me from just numbing the pain. Help me to treat the true source that I may walk in complete healing and peace.
