Light Afflictions -- James 1:1

James 1:1


"James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings." (NKJV)

James, a bondservant of God. It’s interesting that the King James translates this "bondservant" rather than slave. Traditionally in European culture, a slave was someone who was usually kidnapped from their home and sold into slavery by others (like the story of Joseph in the Old Testament). But a bondservant was someone who sold themselves into slavery, often to pay the debt of another. The connotation is that the subjection into slavery is the decision of the slave herself, not the decision of another. Isn’t that how it is with us? No one has forced us to become Christians; we have willingly made that decision. And yet, how is it then that it is so difficult for us to submit ourselves to the will of the Lord and to the service of others?

I think that often we are drawn into Christianity under rather false pretenses. Either we are "born" into a Christian family, or a family that claims to be Christian but has lives that are rather otherwise, or we are "convinced" that our lives would be totally "fixed" if we accepted Christ. Both are probably bad beginnings for a life that is neither easy nor bereft of suffering. To put it bluntly, being a Christian, while far the best choice, is difficult at its easiest and very painful at its most extreme. It is a life of self-denial, of embracing whatever God demands, and of very often trusting in the darkness. When we read that James defined himself as a bondservant of the God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to understand that he had decided to live completely sold out to the will of God, regardless of what that will was, regardless of where it might take him.

Paul talks about all of the suffering that he went through as an apostle:

"In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness" (2 Corinthians 11;23-27 NKJV).

Yet, early in the same letter to the Corinthian church, Paul calls his sufferings "light afflictions:"



"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17 NKJV).

The Greek word translated here "light" is elaphros and means "easy to bear" (Strong’s G2347). Why would Paul say that? Because the pain is well offset by the eternal weight of glory that is working in and for us. Paul goes on to say:

"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. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 5:1-5 NKJV).

This "earthly house" Paul talks about are our physical bodies, but not just our bodies, but in essence this life that we live here on earth. And his perspective on this "life" here is amazing. In verse 4, he says "that mortality may be swallowed up by life!" Despite everything we might try to think and say to convince ourselves, as human beings, we know that we are dying. We know that this life is filled with more misery than joy. We know that things here on earth are, simply put, messed up. We want something more and we try to get it through political, financial, social, and even sexual means, but nothing really works! Why? Because this isn’t really life. This is life messed up by sin. Sin permeates all of creation. There’s no way to get around it.

"For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay" (Romans 8:18-21 NLT).

All of creation—the entire universe—has been subjected to the penalties of sin. That is why both the apostles Peter and John write about the new heavens and the new earth that will someday be created (2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1). This creation, so permeated with sin, cannot be saved; it must be destroyed and a new creation made for God’s people. We have the promise of new bodies and a new creation in which to live. This is why Paul called his sufferings light afflictions. This is why James was willing to become a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the promise that brings us hope. We aren’t looking for a better life here within this creation that cannot be fixed, cannot be saved. We are looking for a perfect life in the new creation waiting for God’s people! We are willing to do whatever He asks for us now because He is preparing for us a life—an eternal life—that is so wonderful, we can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like.

© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

I Need A Savior -- Psalm 70:5

Psalm 70:5


"But I am poor and needy;
Please hurry to my aid, O God.
You are My helper and My Savior;
O Lord, do not delay!" (NLT)

I need a Savior.

As I have gotten older, I’ve become more and more self-aware, aware of my limitations, aware of my faults, aware of actually how little control I have on my life. But more than that, I’m aware of how close I live to the abyss, to the point at where I am lost and alone and terrified of life.

All of us, in the darkness, when we can no longer try to pretend, live in the same place. There is that moment when life threatens to crash in, destroying the "best laid plans of mice and men" and we realize that we are facing a future for which we are totally unprepared. It doesn’t matter how much we think we are prepared. The forces which battle for this earth are far greater than our limited resources, far stronger than our feeble strength, more far reaching than we ever could imagine. It doesn’t matter whether or not you buy into the idea of global conspiracies, fatalism, or the power of optimism. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a conservative, a liberal, or an independent. It doesn’t matter whether or not you live in a developed nation or a developing one. The fact is—the undeniable fact is—there are powers at work beyond our control and life, at the very point that we thought we had all of our ducks in a row, has a habit of crashing in and destroying all our hopes, our plans, and our futures.

We need a Savior.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12 NKJV).

The battle exists on a spiritual level. That means that regardless of the laws we pass, regardless of the government under which we live, regardless of the efforts that we make to change our society, the battle goes on and it can only be fought at a spiritual level. The battle may appear to be in another realm; it may appear to be societal, political, financial, or legal, but it’s not! The only battle against humankind, the only battle that’s being waged, the only battle we need to address is the spiritual battle of Satan and his minions against the Almighty God and His armies. There is no other battle!

It’s taken me a long time to realize that every attack, every heartache, every struggle is related. The hurts of this world seem so diverse, so disconnected. The daughter of a famous singer lying in a coma. The persecution of Christians by a terrorist group. The passing of laws limiting the exercise of religious beliefs. The increase of resources for the rich and the decrease of resources for the poor. The divorce of a dear friend. A child suffering from cancer. The increase of autism and Alzheimer’s. The loss of jobs. The increase in the price of food. The list goes on and on of the events and circumstances which bring suffering into the lives of those we know and those we know of. And yet, if we take the Bible at it’s word, if we believe that what the Holy Spirit has said is true, then there is only one battle and what’s at stake are the eternal souls of everyone who has every lived.

I think of horrible tragedies, homes burning down or terrible car accidents. But when people walk away alive, the common agreement is, "You can replace stuff. You can’t replace lives." As Christians, we need to begin to have that kind of perspective, but on a far greater, more significant level. You can’t replace souls. Souls are eternal; everyone has one. And the battle that’s waging is for our very souls.

We need a Savior.

A number of years ago, I had a nervous breakdown. While many of my friends didn’t realize what was happening to me, I was spending most of my days sitting in a corner of my walk-in closet. I didn’t eat. I didn’t take care of my children. I didn’t help around the house. I simply sat in a closet, terrified of life. Twice a week I’d get dressed and go to church. I had a "role" I could act out and, in the comfort of that structure, I was able to function for brief periods of time. But most of the time, I was paralyzed by the anger, hurt, and fear that permeated my life. My beloved doctor tried various drugs, to no success. Most of them actually made me crazier!

What I needed was a Savior.

Oh, I believe I was still a Christian during that time, but I needed the Holy Spirit to reach in and tear away my self-pity. Only when my dear husband came and prayed for me, a prayer of desperation that God Himself would release me from the prison I’d created, did I begin to get better. I so needed a Savior because I was unable to save myself.

The world is unable to save itself. Different laws won’t save us. Different spouses or jobs won’t save us. Different doctors or lawyers or religious structures won’t save us. We need a Savior. We need the Savior. Only in His power and through His will can the spiritual battle that is the foundational problem of everything be won. And we need more than a Savior at the end of an aisle when we said the "sinner’s prayer." We need the Savior every day for every moment that we face life.

We need the Savior!

　

© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

2 Corinthians 1:8-10

2 Corinthians 1:8-10

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us” (NAS)

Our pastor shared this scripture with us yesterday. It was God’s timing (which is always amazing to me) because this year I have felt burdened excessively. It’s been one of those years when there wasn’t one burden, one tragedy, one suffering, but rather one after another after another after another until I’ve felt that I could barely breathe. I certainly have become rather gun shy, wondering what possibly could happen next and knowing that, in all likelihood, what will happen next will be painful, unpleasant at best.

Interestingly enough, our pastor shared that this passage demonstrated that suffering can be beyond what we can bear within ourselves. Notice that Paul says, “we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.” He told us that there is suffering that is beyond what we can bear to the point that death seems the only outcome, the pain is so severe. I can relate with that, with the idea that life has lost its flavor and that heaven becomes that only thing I want.

Perhaps that’s what the Lord wants for us. Not that He wants for us to be in pain, but that He is, like a shepherd, herding us toward the safety of His arms rather than for us to continue to believe that we can trust in ourselves. “We had the sentence of death within ourselves.” Why? “In order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.” For me, the death of dreams, the death of future plans, the death of knowing where to turn to trust has been the most difficult of all losses. But it is turning me to God. And I serve a miracle-working God, a God Who can turn death into life, possibly in ways that I could never imagine.

Hebrews 11 talks about such lives, lives of saints who saw only suffering without an end in sight, and yet who still trusted in God:

Hebrews 11:35-40 NKJ: “Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented--of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us.”

The fact is that these didn’t receive the promise here on this earth because God had something better. It’s amazing the things that they suffered, some of the sufferings which failed to be reported in anywhere in scripture except in these few verses. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the sufferings were so great that the “world was not worthy” of these people. And yet these same people continued to trust God even though the end of their suffering was death rather than rescue. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say:

Hebrews 13:5b-6 (NKJ): “He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’”

Paul was convinced of this inability of circumstances or powers to separate him from God: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39 NKJ).

This only has value when I realize that the most important thing in my life is God and His love for me. Am I convinced that there is nothing else that matters? The fact is, that is the truth. In the view of eternity, only God’s love and my love for Him in response is important; everything else is a hiccup. In fact, I need to ask myself how much of what I fill my days with will be burned as rubble. Am I trading eternal value for junk when I place my expectations in those things which really don’t matter? Paul writes:

“Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15 NKJ).

Perhaps the suffering I’m going through will help to build a work that will endure, either in my life or in the lives of those around me. Who am I to question God or to ask Him to deliver me from less than what others have experienced? A dear aunt, who is now in Heaven, cherished this verse from the Living Paraphrase:

“So take a new grip with your tired hands, stand firm on your shaky legs, and mark out a straight, smooth path for your feet so that those who follow you, though weak and lame, will not fall and hurt themselves but become strong” (Hebrews 12:12-13).

Obviously the writer of Hebrews understood the concept of being emotionally and physically exhausted, of no longer being firm, but shaky. And yet the encouragement came to take a new grip and to stand firm, marking our a straight, smooth path so that others could follow. My prayer for today would be that I would trust the Lord to make plain the path that I can endure, not through my own strength, but through His strength. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJ).

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Galatians 6:12b

Galatians 6:12b

“ . . . the cross of Christ alone can save.” (NLT)

David Wilkerson, in the World Challenge Pulpit Series of April 26, 2010, writes:

“No matter how I feel, Christ is my righteousness. No matter how many doubts may arise, Christ is my righteousness. No matter how many accusations I hear from the devil during the day, I stand on this: God sees me as righteous in Christ!”

There are, I think, many kinds of salvation. There is the eternal salvation that saves us from the damnation of hell and separation from God. And of all salvations, that is the most crucial, but there are other salvations. There is the salvation from danger or from illness. Hebrews 1:14 tells us that God sends His angels to care for the saints: “They are spirits sent from God to care for those who will receive salvation” (NLT). How often have we been saved from certain death or injury or even an illness because of God sends His angels to guard us and intervene on our behalf? Even in this life, in our day to day doings, God’s salvation is present.

We are also often saved from consequences. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we are removed from the consequences, but rather that God uses the consequences to continue to mold us into the image of His Son. Romans 8:28 tells us “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (NKJV). Even when we do the things we shouldn’t, when we rush ahead of God’s plan or purpose, He continues to work everything—including the consequences of our choices—for our good.

In other words, He continues to save us. We cannot step in and confound God’s plan of salvation for our lives in any way unless we simply reject Him. But as long as we trust Him, He continues to save us, even from ourselves.

A couple of days ago, my husband and I were out driving in a nearby desert community. Now, if you haven’t been in a rural California desert, you may be unfamiliar with what they call roads in some areas. If you are lucky, there may be pavement, but frequently the roads are dirt and sometimes rather rustic. Saturday, we actually found ourselves in a less than one-lane road, surrounded by cactus and sage brush, stopped by a “No Trespassing” sign. Contrary to our map, we had locked ourselves into a dead-end with very little room to turn around. It took some fancy driving for my husband to get us headed in the opposite direction, back toward the pavement some distance away.

I think that life is like that. We find a map we think we should follow. Whether that “map” is a friend’s advice or simply our own desires, we head out toward what we hope is a good opportunity only to find it is a dead-end with seemingly no way out. If we fail to trust the Lord, we can end up responding with depression or anger. But if we understand God’s plan of salvation, we can trust Him to work even those “dead-ends” for our good.

There is no righteousness apart from Christ, but there is all righteousness when we trust Him and Him alone for our salvation. And whether we are focusing, at that moment, on our eternal salvation (which puts everything else in proper perspective) or on the salvation of the moment, Christ alone is what will save us . . . even from ourselves!

In Christ Alone
by Shawn Craig & Don Koch

In Christ alone, I place my trust
And find my glory in the power of the cross
In every victory, let it be said of me
My source of strength, my source of hope
Is Christ alone.

© 1990 Paragon Music Group. c/o Benson Music Group, Inc. 365 Great Circle Road, Nashville, TN 37228. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

2 Peter 2:4-10a

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment--especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. (NRSV)

Peter lists two specific incidents from the Old Testament:

• Noah and his family who were saved from the great flood that encompassed the entire world and killed everyone else.
• Lot and his family who were saved from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fleeing a half day’s journey (by foot) to Zoar (http://www.bibleistrue.com/qna/pqna34.htm). The destruction was so immense that it destroyed both cities in one fell swoop. The salvation of Zoar (being also close) was a miraculous intervention.

Peter also lists the judgment against the evil angels as an assurance that God hasn’t forgotten His holy judgments. He will judge the ungodly!

So what does this mean for us as believers?

It means that God can protect us while, at the same time, judging those who are ungodly around us. Peter writes: “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment” (v. 9).

For many of us who are married to either unbelievers or backsliders, our being “one flesh” with them means that often we live through their consequences, even those these are consequences we haven’t earned. These consequences are often very hard to bear, very painful. And it seems as if the Lord is punishing us along with them. It’s important to realize that while for them it is a punishment, for us it is a trial.

There is a difference.

The Bible assures the believer that we will go through trials.

Hebrews 12:7 (NRSV): “Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?”

James 1:2-4 (NRSV): “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.”

1 Peter 1:6-7 (NRSV): In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith--being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

What are the characteristics of trials?

• They are discipline, allowed by a loving Father, who wants to conform us to the image of His Son. (Romans 8:29)
• We should consider them “nothing but joy.” While trials are painful, there is joy in their purpose because it is maturing us as believers.
• Trials produce endurance.
• Trials prove that our faith is genuine.

What is amazing (and miraculous) is that the circumstance which is a trial for us is a punishment for the unrighteous (the unbeliever and the backslider still in rebellion). I think that is really important to understand for those of us who are suffering due to actions from someone in our families (parents, spouses, children). Because the situation is the same, it seems that we are being punished with them. No! That one circumstance which is punishment to that person is a blessed trial for us, a situation uniquely designed by our Father to mature us in the faith. While the circumstance is something the unbeliever will curse, it is something for which we should be very grateful for it refines us like gold to make us more like the Lord Jesus Christ.

© 2009 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

2 Corinthians 1:3-9

All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. So when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your benefit and salvation! For when God comforts us, it is so that we, in turn, can be an encouragement to you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in suffering, you will also share God’s comfort.
I think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead. NLT

What do we expect out of life? I think that our expectations mold us, control our responses to our circumstances, determine what we find valuable. We probably should ask ourselves what we expect . . . from relationships, from circumstances, from life itself. I think that the answer might be extremely revealing.

I think that, as American Christians, one of the things we expect is happiness. Our very nation was founded upon the idea that one of the purposes of mankind is to be happy:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I think, though, as Christians that we need to ask ourselves (1) if this is truly Biblical as it relates to the purpose of creation; and (2) if this is true for Christians themselves. Is the goal of our lives to pursue happiness, perhaps at all cost? Has God given us that right? Because, if it is a God-given right, then we can pursue it with a free conscience.

(I want to add a note here. I believe that the United States is a wonderful country and that democracy is the best of all possible choices for government when people refuse to submit to a theocracy under the Almighty God. This isn’t a commentary against the United States, but rather an exploration of the mindset of us as Americans.)

Paul obviously didn’t think that God was going to somehow “fix” life and take out the suffering. In fact, Paul tells us two very important things about suffering in this passage:

(1) God doesn’t create suffering, and
(2) God provides comfort when we do suffer.

“God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, no one who wants to do wrong should ever say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else either. Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven’s lights.” (James 1:12-17a NLT)

And, to be honest, I think that a great deal of our suffering—the suffering we have as Americans—comes as a result of our own actions, but even more, as a result of our own expectations. What do we expect should happen in certain situations?

We live in a society that insulates itself against suffering. That’s why insurance and lawsuits were designed . . . to lessen the hardship impact of circumstances that caused loss in our lives. It used to be that people expected life to be hard and simply picked themselves up and began again when bad things happened to them. Now, we struggle with the idea that bad things might happen to “good” people and try to make sense of it.

The fact is, bad things happen to good people (and to bad people) simply because we live in a sinful world. That was a fact accepted by Paul and the other apostles. They never questioned why God didn’t intervene; rather, they accepted suffering as part of the lot of life and rather depended upon God to make such a life doable by providing comfort.

“For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as His children, including the new bodies He has promised us.” (Romans 8:22-23 NLT)

We know that, even as Christians, we sin. Others around us who aren’t Christians sin even more. Even the very planet we live upon is affected by sin and groans to be released back into a state of perfection (reconciliation with God). Even if God could (or would) prevent us from suffering from every act of another sinful human being, the only way He could protect us from the results of living on this planet which itself is groaning would be to remove us from this earth.

There is no escape from suffering in this life.

That needs to be our expectation. And rather than wasting our time, efforts, and resources trying to escape suffering, we should instead be embracing the comfort of God which is promised to us. Rather than deluding ourselves into believing that we can somehow make life wonderful and devoid of pain, we should be instead be looking forward to that wonderful time when we are absent from this corrupt, pained body and present with the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:50).

Rather than asking ourselves how we can avoid pain and suffering, we should be instead focusing upon learning to lean upon God as He walks us through the shadow of (even) death and yet we don’t fear the evil around us, because He is with us (Psalm 23).