By Pastor Alfred Massaquoi
Introduction
Many of you might have read my previous article, entitled: 'Happiness - How to Find True Happiness,' haven't you? Was it interesting or not? Most times when you read these articles, I should appreciate if you "like" or "dislike," and state your "comment." This evaluation will help me a lot to do better: your comments would be taken into good strides - for no comment is foolish or stupid...
Well, happiness in the previous article, although individualistic based on one's values and perspective in life - interpreted as good or evil as a person's case maybe - the bottomline is that happiness comes from within one's very self when he/she sees it fit to help people transform their sorrows into laughter, their joy and accomplishments into success and prosperity. This indeed is true happiness, for "There's more happiness in giving than there's in receiving."
Today, people reject pain and seek happiness forgetting that no pain, no gain - that obedience and discipline from God's standpoint go hand in hand.
Life is a pendulum - it's not always a "bed of roses" or "milk and honey." Gone are the days God sent manna from heaven; quails as meat from the east wind; water from the rock; victories in battles by Himself at battlefronts; cure from snake bites, a look at the master serpent, and the rest of signs, wonders and miracles He performed for His people, Ancient Israel.
This article will land you into scriptural quotations supporting the argument that no pain, no gain, that obedience and discipline are the key components of a healthy Christian life.
From which Perspectives do We Learn No pain, No gain?
Today, we've got to eke out a living as it's said "survival the fittest" in that our ability to provide daily bread for ourselves and families is predicated on our determination and strategies to survive in measuring up to the culture society sets for us.
This means hard work, hardships, suffering or pain, endurance, obedience and discipline and the will-power to succeed are the recipe needed to confront the harsh reality of life - in that, no pain, no gain - is tantamount to failure in Life.
This argument about pain can be looked from different angles - from a positive to a negative perspectives.
From the negative perspective - In Liberia, say, a woman, 28, lives with her boyfriend. He is financially buoyant, so he pays the rent, buys the food, pays all the bills and etcetera.
The Lady said, although the guy refuses to marry her, she dires not quit the relationship of 7 years for fear her needs wouldn't be met, and she and two children would suffer economic hardship.
Another example, in Liberia, a young man due to unemployment and a quest for a better standard of living, joins the Masonic Craft or other secret societies to seek out opportunities, believes that his pursuit is right.
Furthermore, a man calls himself a pastor visits shrines and the occult to make his followers believe that he's god-incarnate with the powers to grant them the success and prosperity they seek.
Or, in America, a woman deliberately aborts a pregnancy because it's unwanted ignoring the fact that abortion is murder, while also, 'man-marries-man' in church believing in gay right that there's nothing unnatural about same sex relationship, and such similar with lesbianism.
Moreover, politics in Africa is poli-tricks - where the tricky or crooked politician running for high office, won't only rig the elections, but indulges in ritualistic killings to ascend to fame, power and authority with impunity in a rein of terror.
Thieves disguise by night to the mercy of households when they break in houses with weapons to commit armed robbery.
People commit corruption or white colar crime today all in the name of being able to beat the system so as to make ends meet or to become super super rich.
Those are just but a few examples of the negative views about rejecting pain as the people involved in the illustrations above believe they gain by the indulgence in self-aggrandizement, that any failure is contrast to not doing those things at all.
Now, the positive angle of pain - could be illustrated by the examples that follow:
A mother could allow her child to undergo a painful operation to remove a bullet in the flesh if that child is to survive, or a mother, out of maternal love, staves so that her child would eat.
Or, the 28 year old woman reasons to herself, "Although I'll suffer economic hardships should I desist from fornication, it worths it to obey God rather than to satisfy my own understanding or my desire for a better living condition."
Or, the thief would say, "Am nolonger a thief, so, I won't ever steal whatever my needs maybe because it's against God's will to take something that doesn't belong to me."
Therefore, if others are executed or jailed for life for armed robbery, the former thief or armed robber escapes death simply for his decision to quit stealing in actuality benefits himself - or rather gains his life from death.
People today Chase Gain the wrong Way
Nevertheless, there are many gains today people gain when they just stop, turnaround and do the right thing in view of the fact that - no pain, no gain.
Doubtless, have you ever heard it's said, "Nothing comes by so easily," or "As you make your bed, so shall you lie on it," or "Rome was not built in a day," or "To be a man is not easy?"
Yes, these familiar clichés well drive home the point that life is nothing but a struggle - yes, life is an empty dream in that if we take short-cuts to avoid pain the critical reality of life would catchup with us sooner or later.
In other words, the problems we strive to escape from would dawn on us at the time least expected, and unless we pass through by doing the right thing our lives would never become better - it might seem our situation moves "From bad to worse, from worse to ridiculous, and or from the fry pan to the fire."
On the contrary, people around the world today have sought solution temples and benevolent pastors masquerading as angels of light to find answers to their miseries rather than the wisdom to allow God brightens their pathway.
When someone gets a little misfortune, health-wise, or financial-wise, or whatever, they tend to panic in search for solutions, thus they gallivant from one church to another to consult demon-possessed spiritualists who perform magic rather then miracle.
Let me prove scripturally why suffering or pain is vital for all Christians to look forward to if we're to please God. See the evidence below:
Biblical Facts About Obedience
James 1:2-4:
My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Hebrews 5:7-10:
In his life on earth Jesus made his prayers and requests with loud cries and tears to God, who could save him from death. Because he was humble and devoted, God heard him. But even though he was God's Son, he learned through his sufferings to be obedient. When he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him, and God declared him to be high priest, in the priestly order of Melchizedek.
Romans 6:16:
Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey—either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God.
1 Samuel 15:22,23:
Samuel said, “Which does the Lord prefer: obedience or offerings and sacrifices? It is better to obey him than to sacrifice the best sheep to him. Rebellion against him is as bad as witchcraft, and arrogance is as sinful as idolatry. Because you rejected the Lord's command, he has rejected you as king.”
Acts 5: 29,32:
Peter and the other apostles answered, “We must obey God, not men. We are witnesses to these things—we and the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to those who obey him.
James 1:12,13:
Happy are those who remain faithful under trials, because when they succeed in passing such a test, they will receive as their reward the life which God has promised to those who love him. If we are tempted by such trials, we must not say, “This temptation comes from God.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
Hebrews 11:32-40:
Should I go on? There isn't enough time for me to speak of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they fought whole countries and won. They did what was right and received what God had promised.
They shut the mouths of lions, put out fierce fires, escaped being killed by the sword. They were weak, but became strong; they were mighty in battle and defeated the armies of foreigners. Through faith women received their dead relatives raised back to life.
They shut the mouths of lions, put out fierce fires, escaped being killed by the sword. They were weak, but became strong; they were mighty in battle and defeated the armies of foreigners. Through faith women received their dead relatives raised back to life.
Others, refusing to accept freedom, died under torture in order to be raised to a better life. Some were mocked and whipped, and others were put in chains and taken off to prison.
They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were killed by the sword. They went around clothed in skins of sheep or goats—poor, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not good enough for them! They wandered like refugees in the deserts and hills, living in caves and holes in the ground.
They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were killed by the sword. They went around clothed in skins of sheep or goats—poor, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not good enough for them! They wandered like refugees in the deserts and hills, living in caves and holes in the ground.
What a record all of these have won by their faith! Yet they did not receive what God had promised, because God had decided on an even better plan for us. His purpose was that only in company with us would they be made perfect.
2 Peter 2:9,10:
And so the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgment, especially those who follow their filthy bodily lusts and despise God's authority...
Biblical Facts About Discipline
Hebrews 12:1-11:
...And do not be discouraged when he rebukes you. Because the Lord corrects everyone he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as a child.”
As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us.
Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God's throne.
Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up. For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. Have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as his children?
Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up. For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. Have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as his children?
“My child, pay attention when the Lord corrects you, endure what you suffer as being a father's punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his children. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father? If you are not punished, as all his children are, it means you are not real children, but bastards. In the case of our human fathers, they punished us and we respected them.
How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness.
When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.
When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.
Conclusion
Evidently, the above scriptures explain themselves well helping us appreciate that if Jesus, the son of God, and our redeemer had to learn obedience from the things he suffered, how much more us humans inferior to Christ - won't we suffer pain to gain eternal life prepared by God since the founding of the earth?
If "Nothing comes by so easily" why not accept the discipline from God by having it borne out in our minds that no pain, no gain?
