God never meant for every pain, sickness or wrong done to us, to be righted on this side of eternity.

In a world filled with pain and suffering, our natural reaction is to do anything we can to take the pain and suffering away, rightly so. We were not made to live in pain and sorrow, sin brought pain and sorrow into the world, so wherever or whenever we see anyone in pain, our natural reaction is to do anything we can to make the pain go away. That is why we pray, visit and do all we can to help the sick and those experiencing some kind of pain and loss. That is also why we get angry when we experience injustice either personally or around us.

While it is good and Biblical to help those in need and to try as much as we can to help alleviate the pain and suffering of those around us, we must never forget that God never meant for every pain, sickness or wrong done to us, to be righted on this side of eternity. In His infinite wisdom, God uses everything in the world: the good, the bad and the ugly to achieve His purposes and as much as we may not like it, there are some difficulties that will not go away or be alleviated until we see in Him in glory.

The whole purpose of our redemption is not to make this world a better place for us to live, but to give us a hope of heaven

Knowing God and making Him known is the reason He left us on earth after He saved us, so the Lord expects us believers to seek His wisdom in every situation. Every situation should be seen as an opportunity to not only know God, but also to make Him known. When we encounter those in some pain or are suffering around us, we should try to meet the physical need as much as we can, but we must never put that above their spiritual need. We must give room for God in that situation. The whole purpose of our redemption is not to make this world a better place for us to live, but to give us a hope of heaven. This is the hope we are to share with everyone we come in contact with.

In helping those in need, pain and who are suffering, the gospel of Christ must be at the fore front. Our goal in helping must always be to point the suffering person to Christ. No matter how much we love people, we cannot love them more than God.  Jesus said in Mark 8:36 – For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  In trying to take care of the physical, we must never, never forget their soul.

Soli Deo Gloria!