Pain and Thankfulness

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: When you feel pain, what’s the first thing you do?

Woman 1: Other than yell, I usually breathe deeply and pray.

Woman 2: What do I do when I feel pain? Take Ibuprofen or Tylenol.

Nancy: None of us like pain, but it can be a motivation for us to be thankful. Jonathan Edwards wrote:

Jonathan Edwards: I'm resolved when I feel pain to think of the pains of martyrdom and of hell.

Nancy: Think about that for a minute. Edwards knew he’d always experience pain on this earth, but he wanted it to move him to thankfulness. Thankfulness that he wasn’t facing the pain of martyrdom like so many who had gone before him. Thankfulness that through God’s mercy we can escape the unimaginable pain of separation from God in hell.

It puts things in perspective. No pain we can endure here on earth compares to the pain from which we’ve been spared. Ask God to help you live in a spirit of thankfulness today, no matter what you’re going through.

With Seeking Him, I’m Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.