Pain, physical pain will make you stop being concerned with accumulating material goods, pain, strong, intense pain of the body takes away all thoughts of fleshly desires, it removes all wants, pride flees from all consuming pain. Pain causes men to call on God or run to the physician, but when the pain abates the flesh rejoices.
“And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” (Job 2:4)
The frustrations of the mind, thoughts that cause anxiety and fear can be assuaged if the item causing those thoughts are removed, if the darkness of the world consumes your thoughts, stop watching the world, if someone in your life is a constant burden on your mind, leave their presence. But you cannot stop intense physical pain unless you seek some form of outside assistance.
“In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” (Job 1:22)
In many cases people in intense physical pain call upon the Lord and He answers them, it is His way at times of letting them know of His existence, but when the pain abates, when the flesh is given free will once again, they forget Him who healed them. The masses followed the Lord Jesus Christ in many cases because He was an anomaly, He was the “newest thing,” they sought for physical healing and then left to go back to the business of life, or remained in His presence to watch the show, to see the miracles, but not to hear the words of life.
“I want what I want, and when I get it, I have better things to do.”
Drawn to the Great Physician, but not to the Savior.
I would ask you to contemplate something today, I would ask you to contemplate eternal pain. The body racked with incredible, intense pain, so much so that all other thoughts are neglected, so much so that there is nothing but the pain. And then add this to your contemplations, that pain, that all-consuming physical pain that you are experiencing, you know for a fact will never stop.
The rich man in the account of the beggar Lazarus could still speak, he could still formulate thoughts well enough to form cohesive sentences. The anguish of the mind was there, he felt the heat, he knew thirst, he still had, if even in the most rudimentary way, a semblance of hope. He did not ask Abraham for water, but to send Lazarus with even just a drop.
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” (Rev. 20:14)
Pain beyond any comprehension of the human mind, inconceivable, eternal physical pain. Now add to this knowledge the fact of eternal hopelessness, the unmitigated truth that in the Lake of Fire is where you will remain forever. Take a few moments and consider these truths, and then look at your neighbor, your co-workers, your family and friends, all those you know that are still denying the only way to escape the eternal torment, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It puts the coming Tribulation period into perspective, doesn’t it? It causes thoughts of the Rapture, of the dark and evil days we live in into their proper place, does it not?
Eternal suffering, pain beyond any imagination of the human mind, eternal hopelessness. What are you warning those you meet of, the coming darkness? The coming days of Jacob’s Troubles? The return of the Lord to take His saints home?
What do you think you should be warning them of?
