Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
This mini-message is addressed to people who suffer pain.
The kind that the pills don't seem to help.
That keeps you awake at night:
(a) The Lord Jesus Christ is your Co-sufferer: No one ever suffered sharper, more excruciating physical pain than He did while being crucified (yes, the spiritual was so bad He hardly felt the physical pain; but don't minimize the reality that He endured in His physical flesh).
(b) The fact that the history is now past tense doesn't affect the present-tense reality of His identifying Himself with you in your pain: "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them, all the days of old" (Isa. 63:9).
(c) Put all that in the present tense; He feels it all today.
(d) God never intended that humans should experience pain; as Jesus said in His parable of the evil man who sowed tares among the wheat, "an Enemy hath done this" (Matt. 13:28).
(e) By identifying yourself with Jesus, you transmute your lonely vigil with pain into a "fellowship [with Christ] in His sufferings" (Phil. 3:10). To "believe in Jesus" includes close identification with Him in His sufferings.
(f) The idea is not about earning a reward for yourself; it's about comfort for you in your pain now. Forget about any reward; you will be happy now and for eternity just for the joy of any personal "fellowship" with Him you have ever had.
(g) For sure, no matter how much you may hurt in your body, remember that somewhere there is someone who is in greater pain than you are, where their sky is darker, where their hope seems less bright: pray for that person.
(h) Then pray that the Lord may educate you, motivate you, inspire you, equip you, to minister a blessing to that person. The Lord will say to you, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matt. 25:23).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 2, 2008.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
------------------------------
Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
