Don't Waste Your Pain Series

One day, a cowboy was driving down a dirt road with his dog riding in back of the pickup truck and his faithful horse in the trailer behind. He failed to negotiate a curve and had a terrible accident.

Sometime later, a highway patrol officer came on the scene. As an animal lover, he saw the horse first. Realizing the serious nature of its injuries, he drew his service revolver and put the animal out of its misery.

Then he walked around the accident scene and found the dog, also hurt critically. He couldn’t bear to hear it whine in pain, so he ended the dog’s suffering as well.

Finally, he located the cowboy—who had suffered multiple fractures—off in the weeds. “Hey, are you okay?” the cop asked.

The cowboy took one look at the smoking revolver in the trooper’s hand and quickly replied, “Never felt better!” (Leadership, Vol.19, no.1)

Sometimes people say to one another, “Never felt better,” but inside they’re hurting real bad. These are hard times for a lot of people, but these are also times to look ahead with hope, because Jesus is coming again!

You may think times are bad now, but there was a group of believers in the 1st Century that had it a whole lot worse than we. They were going through so much trouble, they thought they were in the Tribulation; they thought they were in the great and terrible Day of the Lord; they thought they were experiencing the end of the age.

That’s when the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write some words of encouragement for those of us in any age, who are going through hard times. 1st of all, he assures us that we are NOT in the Tribulation. Then he gives us some practical advice on how to handle the hard times even when it feels like we ARE in the Great Tribulation itself.

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 1, 2 Thessalonians 1, where we have God’s words of encouragement for hard times.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-5 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering… (ESV).

Their suffering made them better. It made them worthy subjects. It made them better citizens of God’s Kingdom. It caused them to grow in faith and in love.

Codfish are shipped all over the United States mostly from the northeastern part of the country. Public demand is so great for the codfish that at first it posed a problem for the shippers.

In the early days, they froze the cod before shipping it, but that took away much of the flavor.

Then they experimented with shipping the codfish live in tanks of seawater, but that proved even worse. It was more expensive. The cod still lost its flavor, AND it became soft and mushy. The texture of the meat was seriously affected.

Finally, somebody came up with a creative solution. They placed the codfish in a tank of seawater along with some catfish, their natural enemy. And from the time the codfish left the East Coast those ornery catfish chased them all over the tank until they arrived at their destination. When they got to market even on the West Coast, they were as fresh as the day they were first caught. There was no loss of flavor, nor was the texture affected. In fact, some said the codfish tasted better than before (Charles Swindoll).

Life is like that sometimes. You find yourself in a tank of inescapable circumstances. You may not be where you want to be. And to make matters worse, God has put some “catfish” in your tank. You feel like trouble is chasing you all over the place.

Tell me, does God do this just to make you miserable? No! Verse 5 talks about “the righteous judgment of God.” In other words, what God does is always right. God allows trouble in your tank to keep you alive, alert, fresh and growing. It is NOT his intention to destroy you. On the contrary, He wants to produce a Christ-like character in each and every one of you. And He wants you to arrive at your destination better than you ever were before.