PAIN AND GRACE

By Preston Nowlin

Since mid-August I have had an extraordinary opportunity, but it was almost a lost opportunity. Without the ministry of a friend, I would have missed it entirely. The opportunity was that of knowing our Father's grace in a special way. Let me explain.

On November 29, after being confined to my chair by a painful back for three months, a friend brought me an article entitled "The Grace of Adversity." This article is teaching me that pain is a channel of God's grace, not simply something that must be borne. Let me just list the lessons that I am being taught.

"Adversity is grace on the soul…The power of Christ rests upon the resigned soul…Grace comes first in the form of soul searching, inward evaluation, and examination…Adversity is grace because we come to see our own frailty, and the humbling, sobering fact that we cannot raise or heal ourselves…Adversity is also grace as affliction draws to us an outpouring of concern and love. We get a renewed sense of brotherhood…Adversity is grace as our thirst for the Word of God grows by leaps and bounds…Adversity becomes overwhelming grace as prayer life becomes constant and more persistent…Adversity is grace for it gives us a lively hope of heaven.”

"Finally, adversity is grace as we beg God that we would remember what we have learned here and not turn from it. Will it make us bitter or better? May God graciously help us to find the grace in adversity." (All of the above is from "The Grace of Adversity" by James Baer in "The Christian Contender" for November 2003.)

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