“Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.” (2 Corinthians 1:6)
If you knew that the pain a friend was facing would lead them to God, would you remove the pain if you could? If you understood that the heartache of a loved one would result in the salvation of their soul, would you allow it to happen? If you realized that the suffering that you are dealing with right now meant that God would use you to comfort another person, would you refuse to endure it? These are difficult questions but they are important ones to ask. If God is good and can be trusted, doesn’t that mean He has a plan and purpose for everything, even our pain?
I once had a very diffrent life, I was a successful businessman and president of corporation. I was married 15 years to my best friend, our children were happy, we owned a beautiful home and we were not in any debt. I enjoyed our life to the fullest.
One day, without any signs or warnings my wife leaves my children and I. There was no explanation as to why or what had been done to make her want to leave. There had been very few disagreements in our marriage. We did everything together, My wife and children meant everything to me.
It wasnt very long before I discovered that she had become involved with a professional con-artist that made an existence stealling peoples identies and breaking up familes for his financial gain.
Through fraud my business and personal accounts had been compromised an emptied, it put all of our employees at risk of loosing their jobs and the kids and I almost homeless.
The heartache and the stress caused me to have a hemorrhagic stroke about 3 months later that changed my life forever. I lost my vision for some time from hemorrhage eyes, ears and the feeling in right hand and leg. I suffered brain dammage, mostly to my ability to recall anything recent.
Life was by no means easy. Our innocent children suffered from abandonment and the loss of everything familiar to them.
There were friends and family who saw it as a tragedy. After all, I had to endure surgeries, and years of therapy and difficulties just to be able think correctly.
There are those in the world who would have looked at my situation and asked “How can a good God exist when someone especially children have to suffer like this.” There’s a problem with that thought; they can’t see God’s full plan. You see, because of my story of hardship, I am able to share comfort with those who have endured similar things. Also, as people hear the amazing story of what God has done in my life, how He sought me out and saved me. How He also gave me the most wonderful wife and a new family, restored my mind and a miracle recovery. He gets the glory. In the end, my past sufferings (I gave you the short verson) have been used to draw men and women into a relationship with God. That, is worth every moment of pain I endured.
“Every pain in life can find meaning by learning to comfort others.”
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Thank You for the trials You have allowed in my life. Help me to patiently endure those hard times so that I can be used to comfort and minister to others in their times of need. In Jesus’ name, amen
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Rob Lavallee
Scriptural Seeds Ministries
Scriptural Seeds 