Wednesday’s With Pastor Steve
January 22, 2025 –
Healing Life’s Hurts
Wednesday’s With Pastor Steve
January 22, 2025
If you could choose a pain-free life, would you? The National Institute of Health offers the following definition:
Pain is a signal in your nervous system that something may be wrong. It is an unpleasant feeling, such as a prick, tingle, sting, burn, or ache. Pain may be sharp or dull. It may come and go, or it may be constant. You may feel pain in one area of your body, such as your back, abdomen, chest, pelvis, or you may feel pain all over.
Pain can be helpful in diagnosing a problem. If you never felt pain, you might seriously hurt yourself without knowing it, or you might not realize you have a medical problem that needs treatment.
There are two types of pain: acute and chronic. Acute pain usually comes on suddenly, because of a disease, injury, or inflammation. It can often be diagnosed and treated. It usually goes away, though sometimes it can turn into chronic pain. Chronic pain lasts for a long time, and can cause severe problems.
Pain is not always curable, but there are many ways to treat it. Treatment depends on the cause and type of pain. There are drug treatments, including pain relievers. There are also non-drug treatments, such as acupuncture, physical therapy, and sometimes surgery.[1]
That’s probably more information than you wanted, but if we are to talk about healing we should understand what we need healing from. Obviously, the above definition is limited to ‘physical’ pain.
What about other types of pain? Trauma has become part of our conversation. Trauma is
is caused by a stressful occurrence ‘that is outside the range of normal human experience and that would be markedly distressing to almost anyone.[2]
Trauma encompasses physical causes, emotional challenges, spiritual hurt, and so much more.
Grief is another word that captures the idea of hurting. We grieve when a loved one or friend dies. We grieve when we lose a job, or a friendship ends for any number of reasons. We grieve over lost opportunities and mistakes we wish we hadn’t made.
Heartache is a word with which we are too familiar. Someone speaks an unkind word. Another spreads untrue information about us and we experience hurt.
The Bible, which is our textbook for this study, never uses the word ‘trauma.’ Rather we find the words such as ‘suffer’ and its cognates. In the Bible we read about physical pain (see Genesis 3:16; in the NT Jesus experiences physical pain – see Matthew 17:12 and multiple other passages), we read the word ‘tribulation,’ ‘affliction; and other English words as well.
The Bible also points to healing. A number of miracles in both the Old Testament and the New Testament are specifically healing from various physical ailments. One resource defines ‘healing’
Healing is the restoration of body, mind, or spirit to a state of wholeness and well-being. This restoration may be physical, as in the recovery from an illness or injury, or spiritual, as in the forgiveness of sins and justification before God. Ultimately, healing is embodied by Jesus, as he healed the sicknesses of many in his earthly ministry and secured ultimate healing for all in his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection.[3]
The primary issue is not whether or not we will experience pain and trauma. The real challenge is how we respond to the pain and trauma we all experience. Brian King, a pastor in Eugene, OR suggests there are two paths we can take when it comes to responding to pain – whatever the cause:
- the path of pity
- the path of perseverance.[4]
A key passage from the NT that will serve as a point of reference is
“Jesus was going all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Then the news about Him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to Him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.” (Matthew 4:23–25, HCSB)
Brian King writes,
Pain does not – or should not – define our lives. Neither does pretending. Despite what we tell ourselves, our world is not all good. I am not all good either. But the One [Jesus] who is good is at work in your life and mind…. My hope isn’t in the healing. It’s in the healer. If my hope is in the healing I must get the outcome I want…But, if my hope is in the healer, I’ve got genuine hope no matter what, because my relationship with him is secure.[5]
As we spend these sessions together I ask you to come with an open Bible, a notepad and pen or pencil. We will be reading from God’s Word. Come with an open heart. Pretending is useless. We all have hurt. We all experience pain. We all need Jesus!
If you have questions or comments, please leave them in the space provided. I am providing a written copy of my remarks on our church website,
www.winstoncommunitybaptist.com on a page titled, HEALING LIFE’S HURTS. Written copies will be available on the Sunday following each episode.
[1] https://medlineplus.gov/pain.html, accessed 1/22/25.
[2] Peter A. Levine with Ann Fredrick, Walking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences (Berkeley, CA.: North Atlantic Books, 1997), 24; quoted from Diagnostic Statistics Manual, DSM III, Revised Edition, 1993.
[3] Chris Byrley, “Healing,” in Lexham Theological Wordbook, ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), emphasis in original.
[4] Brian King, Letters to My Friends in Pain (Eugene, OR: SoulCare Press, 2024), 32. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU PURCHASE THIS BOOK! It is available on Amazon. If you cannot afford one, please let me know and I will see what I can do to assist you in obtaining a copy.
[5] King, Letters to My Friends in Pain, 45.
WEEK TWO
Healing Life’s Hurts: Session 2
January 29, 2025
Welcome to another episode of Wednesday’s With Pastor Steve. Lets begin by reading our touchstone passage:
“Jesus was going all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Then the news about Him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to Him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.” (Matthew 4:23–25, HCSB)
“All those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains…” and so on were being brought to Jesus because He was recognized as one who could heal. The list of diseases and afflictions Jesus healed is long and varied.
A pre-requisite for healing is honestly assessing the disease. There is a distinct difference between a symptom and the disease. Many times, we are seeking relief from the symptoms, not necessarily healing from the underlying cause. A cough, for example may be a symptom of an infection of the throat or lungs. Abdominal pain may indicate appendicitis or a host of other diseases. Joint pain may indicate torn ligaments. The list could be endless. People are often frustrated with their doctors because instead of treating the symptoms, they want immediate relief from the symptom!
Thinking about the kinds of pain we are talking about; the same principle holds. Often the pain, the grief, the loss, the emotional distress we suffer are symptoms not just the cause. I was diagnosed a number of years ago as being mildly clinically depressed. The symptoms were sleepiness, irritability, moodiness, loss of hope, comfort eating, and other symptoms. Instead of treating each symptom, my doctors and counselors focused on the underlying causes. I still struggle with mild (and sometimes not-so-mild) depression, but under a doctor and counselors care progress is being made.
I am not a psychologist, licensed counselor or therapist. I am not a diagnostician. I am a student of the Bible, people, and the environment in which we live (not the ecological environment…but the social and emotional atmosphere in which we live, work, worship, and play).
Brian King, in his helpful book, Letters to My Friends in Pain suggests five choices we can make that allows Jesus to assist us in becoming overcomers and not merely sufferers. The choices he identifies are:
- Rediscovering Your Identity
- Embracing what’s Most Important
- Finding a New Power Source
- Choosing a New Support System
- Experiencing Growth.[1]
These choices all begin when we are honest about our feelings (our symptoms), willing to inquire as to the causes (the root of the disease), and seek outside help as needed (learning to speak with God, listening to Him in His Word, asking other believers for assistance).
As Brian King writes, “Pain often leaves us not only feeling alone, but trapped in the state we are in.”[2] As you recall from the passage in Matthew’s gospel, people ‘brought’ to Jesus people with various afflictions, pains, and diseases. Someone was honest enough to confront the one who was ill and honest enough to ask for help!
Once Jesus was in Jerusalem and He walked by the a pool called ‘Bethesda.’ Legend and rumor had it that an angel of God would stir the waters and the first person in the water would be healed. There were likely dozens of people around the pool. John’s gospel records an interesting encounter:
“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”” (John 5:6, HCSB)
Do you want to get well? In the original language Jesus asked, do you want to be made whole? As we consider the biblical approach to healing the pains of life we start there: Do We Want To Be Made Whole?
Join me next time for an episode of Wednesday’s With Pastor Steve.
[1] Brian King, Letters to My Friends in Pain (Eugene, OR.: SoulCare Press, 2024), 32.
[2] Ibid., 34.