Peace amid Pain - Salvation from God (1)

In order for the suffering medication to be complete a third element must be added. It’s impossible for a believer to overcome his sufferings and pain without this blessed triple combination.

You may ask “Oh God, for how long? I know you love me and I am confident of your company in troubles but when will these pains and troubles come to an end?

Dear, trust that your God, does not give analgesics, but He gives strong and effective medications "who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1Peter 1: 5). And from here comes the role of the third medicine which is deliverance from God. We are waiting for salvation from God, that’s why Apostle Paul said we groan within ourselves but not indefinitely; he says "even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23). Every groan will end when our bodies are redeemed. We hope and wait for a salvation.

How could this hope treat our sufferings?
First: This hope puts a limit and an end to our pains, we shall not suffer forever “for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11). As we mentioned earlier, the time of tribulation is a limited time “you will have tribulation ten days” (Revelation 2:10). God has promised: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). Therefore the believer’s rejoice will not be complete without this third medication which is the Joy of salvation.

Our salvation is not and will not be complete until our Lord returns to take us with Him; we have experienced deliverance from the judgment of sin in its punishment and retribution; everyday we experience deliverance from the authority of the sin and its control over us, but we still expect God’s salvation by Faith. That’s why apostle Peter was able to say: “You sorrow not”; but if the verse ends with the words: you sorrow not, we all may ask “how can we not sorrow? Who in the world cannot sorrow; but here the answer comes up: “lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). We have sorrows and others have same, so where is the difference? There is a huge difference for we have hope going along with grievances.

You may ask “How does the birth from God and His protection help when the dearest one to me dies, or when my body falls in the hardest diseases?” Let me give you the good news; there still is a solution to this matter. “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1); The Lord Jesus Himself comforts us in this regard through his preaching. How beautiful are His sermons and teachings, they are simple and easy but they are strong and profound and get deep into the hearts. He has resembled our time in troubles like a woman in labor, when he said: “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow” Yes, there are pains and sufferings but what comforts us and encourages us is that: “but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” (John 16:21). What make us bear our pains are our certainty and our hope that the end is near. “But the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7); this is the Hope of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Behold, I am coming quickly” (Revelation 22:7)

Magdy Samuel