How do I press into pain when it hurts~day 12

This is directly from Seth’s blog: 

As a leader, sometimes I’m called upon to inflict pain. I have to make decisions that hurt people in order to achieve some larger purpose. The danger in doing so is that I can keep that pain at arm’s length. I can delegate it to someone else. Or I can simply fail to empathize.

Yet, that’s what good leaders do. It’s hard for anyone, whether they are just leading themselves or a thousand people, to embrace pain, even when that may be what God is asking of them. One of the hardest things about my leadership position at AIM is that I have to continually press into pain in life if I’m to lead well.

If you have proven yourself trustworthy to God in other small ways, watch out! He may trust you with one of his most precious and misinterpreted of gifts: the gift of pain.

The prosperity gospel people have it wrong. God is probably more interested in our response to testing than he is in showering us with material blessings. He is a good father. He wants to help us to move toward greater dependence on him and that place of intimacy where our hearts find their home.

How will you do in tough times?  There is an age-old bet that Satan makes with God, the best example of which we see in the book of Job.  It goes like this: “I’ll bet your servant is just in it for the good times, let’s see how he does with a little pain in his life.”

Inviting pain

If we’ve lived hunkered down, hiding in a comfort zone, and if we flinch at the thought of anything that might look like pain, we might want to consider how to tilt the balance back by taking on some of the good pain God prescribes.

One form of pain we can take on is the burdens of other people. Jesus looked out over the people and his heart broke. They looked like sheep without a shepherd and he felt their pain.

Another way God may ask us to voluntarily embrace pain is through fasting. Jesus said that his disciples would fast (Matt. 9:14-15). Fasting is a tool God gives us to beat the enemy at his own game. By pressing into pain and inviting pain, we beat pain.

The irony in most western countries is that we do the opposite. We gorge. We grow addicted to eating. People go to counselors because of their food issues.

(This next section is also from Seth’s blog.  I have fasted but its still new to me and Seth has a great experience with it.)

Learning to fast

I grew up fasting. Not because I was spiritual, but because I was a wrestler and had to make weight. At one point I had to lose about 30 pounds (what a dysfunctional sport!).

So I became well-acquainted with the gnawing pain that attends a fast. I probably needed to go to a counselor for my food issues. 

But the Lord redeemed it. Later in life as I pressed into how to cope with my daughter’s pain and sought healing for her, I fasted weekly. And when it was time to seek a breakthrough in a season of life, I pressed into it with an extended fast.

Can you relate to feeling fear of saying yes to more pain? Does the prospect of a long fast intimidate you? Where does fear like that come from and how do we beat it? 

Many of us are simply addicted to comfort and don’t understand God’s invitation to greater intimacy. We’ve not known what it feels like to be hungry for an extended period of time. Perhaps we’ve not had much experience enduring physical pain, so we worry about whether we can defeat it.

Pick your reason why fasting seems hard. The question is, if you sense that you should, will you say yes or no? It’s that simple.