-Joe Fornear
No one has ever managed to completely avoid pain. Some have learned to manage it though. 
Amazingly, despite millenniums of angry questions and shaking fists pointed His direction, the Lord still allows pain on the earth. Yet all along He has leveraged pain for His kingdom and our greater good (Romans 8:28). But we must be clear with Job and Peter that pain is never in vain, or surely we will resist His processes… and miss the hidden benefits.
But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. – Job 23:10
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. – 1 Peter 1:6-8
As a Stage IV melanoma survivor, the purifying fires of pain have swept through my own heart. These types of struggles have the potential to revise values and refocus priorities, setting us free from the empty desires and tyrannous demands of life. Many of our friends battling cancer have told us that despite the difficulty, God has used their battle to draw them to Him. This is why so many have called their cancer a gift!
(For more on Joe’s journey, reply to this email and ask for the free ebook, My Stronghold).
Speaking of gifts, there was One Who not only managed His pain and suffering, but He mastered it.
In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. – Hebrews 5:6-7
Keep in mind, if you received Jesus as your Savior, He now lives inside of you and will produce supernatural coping mechanisms inside you. So like Jesus, let’s pour out our hearts in complete dependence and surrender to our loving Father. And cut yourself some slack, even The Perfect Son, Jesus, had to “learn” obedience from suffering.
