The Bittersweet Blessing Of Pain

I took the little scroll … and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
Revelation 10:10

What surgeon hasn’t consoled a patient with the thought that the pain of the scalpel will promote healing and health? It’s good news and bad news at the same time—much like the bittersweet news of the cross.

So often it’s the same in our lives. We achieve maturity through the bitterness of suffering. Susannah Spurgeon, who suffered for over 25 years, understood the reward suffering brings.

WALK WITH SUSANNAH SPURGEON
“At the close of a gloomy day, I lay resting on my couch. Though all was bright within my cozy room, some of the external darkness seemed to have entered my soul and obscured its spiritual vision. In sorrow I asked, ‘Why does my Lord so often send sharp and bitter pain to visit me?’

“Suddenly I heard a sweet, soft sound, a clear, musical note. It came from the oak log crackling on the fire! The fire was letting loose the imprisoned music from the old oak’s inmost heart!

“ ‘Ah,’ I thought, ‘when the fire of affliction draws songs of praise from us, then indeed we are purified, and our God is glorified!’

“Perhaps some of us are like this old oak log, cold, hard, insensible; we should give forth no melodious sounds were it not for the fire which kindles around us, and releases notes of trust in him and cheerful compliance with his will.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
“This might hurt a little bit!” Those words bring scant comfort at the pediatrician’s office. Only as the child matures will he realize that pain can sometimes lead to better health.

So too God’s children must learn that “the Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Hebrews 12:6).

Why? “That we may share in his holiness … a harvest of righteousness and peace” (Hebrews 12:10-11).

Bittersweet blessings. You may not enjoy them at first bite, but you’ll love the aftertaste.