WE continue yesterday’s post where we looked at the possibility of pain being God’s method to draw us 
into deeper intimacy with Him. A reminder: This is not God’s first choice for His creation. The problem is that there are few people who respond to the goodness of God. God loves people more than He loves their comfort. He invests a great deal into mankind. He desires relationship with us and will go to great lengths to create such a relationship in order for us to receive the rewards and inheritance He has for us.
into deeper intimacy with Him. A reminder: This is not God’s first choice for His creation. The problem is that there are few people who respond to the goodness of God. God loves people more than He loves their comfort. He invests a great deal into mankind. He desires relationship with us and will go to great lengths to create such a relationship in order for us to receive the rewards and inheritance He has for us. There appears to be three distinct states of Christian growth – in our intimacy with Him.
First we live based on convenience . Our obedience is largely based on circumstances in our lives. We choose to obey based on circumstances.
The second stage is the crisis stage. God allows a crisis to come into our lives. We are motivated to obey God in order to get out of the pain of our situation. Many times God allows us to stay in this condition in order to demonstate His love and faithfulness during out pain. Gradually, we discover something new about God and often have a personal encounter with Him that changes us. Our very nature is affected by this God-encounter.
This begins to move us into a third phase that is a relationship motivated now by love and devotion instead of pain. This is where God desires us to be. Another way of saying this is we are no longer seeking His hand. We are seeking Him. We want to know God personally.
Obedience will not last when the motivation is only the removal of our pain. Obedience only lasts when the motivation is loving devotion.
Where are you and I in our obedience and what is the primary motivation? By the way, pain can be caused by our making wrong decisions; by others making wrong decisions conerning us (drunk drivers); by our sin; by living in a fallen world or by God seeking deeper intimacy with us. Question: could the persistent pain you and I are experiencing be God’s tool to invite us into deeper intimacy with Him?
Thanks to Os Hillman for this adaptation.
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