Pain, suffering, and happiness are three rather different words to be linked together. Everyone desires happiness, but this has different meanings for each of us. Furthermore, stress and pain are two major barriers between us and our goal of happiness.

We all know that some kind of pain, physical, mental, or emotional, is one of the inevitable facts of life. When we are in pain our first response is to somehow get rid of that pain. This is not always possible. Still, our minds tell us that the less pain we experience, the happier we are.

Although we may not want to admit it, pain plays an important role in our lives. Pain is the body’s messenger which alerts us to the fact that some part of our body needs immediate attention. When Jesus Christ is in your life, pain is not all bad, because Jesus uses pain as a teacher as  you learn to live with it and come to make the distinction between pain and suffering. As you walk with Jesus, He will help you  begin to understand the statement that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. Because pain loses it’s sting in the hands of Jesus, because He changes it, and only allows it to teach you what it is that He wants you to know and what it is that He wants you to learn from the experience of whatever pain He’s allowed.

So with that statement being made, this leads you to another way to look at pain. This different view of pain and pain control, is based on the concept that pain reduction can be achieved, not by escaping from pain, but rather in escaping into it, and surrending it to Jesus, and asking Him to teach you whatever lesson the pain is there to teach you and then ask Him to allow you to go on, once you’ve learned pain’s lesson.

A large portion of what we feel when we feel pain is not true pain at all but suffering, that is our mental response to pain, which is really our resistance to the pain. What this means is that suffering, which feels the same as pain, but is not pain, increases and decreases in direct proportion to our resistance to pain. Thus, the less we resist pain, the less we suffer, and the less total pain we experience.

Of course it would be unrealistic to think that merely changing our thoughts about pain will make it go away ’cause trying to do that just does not work, we’ve tried it.  Pain, whether sudden and unexpected, or chronic and long-term, is a fact of our human experience, there’s no sense in trying to escape it, because it is here to stay. You might as well let pain do what it’s there to do, let it run it’s course and then ask Jesus to allow you to go on once you have learned your lesson that the pain was sent into your life to teach you.  It is incredibly wise to note that Praying more can assist you to work with Jesus, so that any anger, bitterness and resentment that has shown up in your life can be dealt with and cured so that no deep rooted scars are left behind as you go on with Jesus in your christian walk with Him after you’ve learned your lesson!

And now, what about happiness? It has been stated that we often experience happiness in the midst of suffering, and pain in the midst of joy. As we become mindful of the place of pain and suffering in our lives we move towards a place of acceptance of what exists, which leads us to distance ourselves from that which exits. This distancing is the freedom that leads to true happiness.

Finding happiness for ourselves, or even knowing what happiness is, can be problematic because the world tries to show you pictures of what happiness should look like, but in God’s Kingdom, the happiness that the world deems important is not the same as what matters to God!  True happiness may not be what you think it is, for it is often hidden deep within you, and you may never before have realized how much happiness and potential happiness you already have on the inside, but the more you walk with Jesus, the more He will help you understand what real happiness is and what matters to God in terms of happiness.   Through meditation, stress management, Prayer, exercise,  journaling,  and other mindfulness endeavors You must seek and find that hidden well of real happiness that will fill You with a deep, inner glow and enable You to view pain, suffering, and happiness in new and unexpected ways.

Yes, pain is inevitable, but when you walk with Jesus, suffering is optional, and true happiness is frequently hidden deep within yourself waiting to be discovered.  This is the challenge each of us must face as we learn to live meaningful, productive lives in spite of the pain that is an unavoidable part of every life as we walk with and surrender our lives to Jesus.
If you are fed up with the pain and suffering in Your life and would like Jesus to help you transform it for Your good and His Glory, Join us in this simple prayer;

Dear Jesus,
I’m tired of the clutches of pain’s terrible grip in my life. Up until now, I have not understand why so much pain has been allowed in my life, and I am fed up with trying to escape it. Please Jesus, I invite you to come into my life and become my Personal Lord and Savior and help me learn the lesson that pain is in my life to teach me with poise, Grace and Humility so that it pleases you and pleases God enough to the point that you will allow me to then be able to get on with my life smarter, wiser and much better than I have ever been before. This I am asking in your name Sweet Jesus, I pray – Amen!