The Truth is: Life Hurts but You Don’t Have To

 

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Life Hurts but You Don't Have to!

By: Susan Deborah Schiller

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Disclaimer: Pain has benefits, in alerting us to danger and letting us know when we need to change direction in our lives. The type of pain I'm talking about today is the chronic pain that disables you, torments you, and robs you of life. I'm also speaking about the pain we feel for each other. Those of us who are highly empathetic, or intercessors who carry other's burdens, often take on other people's pain without giving it over the Jesus. We try to be Atlas, the mythical man who carried the whole world on his shoulders. Only One Man is equipped to carry pain, and that is our Savior, Christ Jesus, and that is truth to build your life upon.

Pain ripples to everyone around us, just as when you get an infected tooth, your whole body is affected. You can't eat or sleep. It's the same with chronic emotional pain, except that no one sees our suffering when its sociopathic abuse. The kind of pain I'm talking about today is the kind of pain your enemy wants to saddle you with the rest of your life. His intentions may even be revealed such as when my husband said, "I don't want a divorce; I just want to watch you suffer." That kind of pain. Pain that has no purpose except to torment!

In my book, "On the Way Home," I am sharing my experiences in learning to turn that adversity into advantage. To not simply stop the pain, but to experience God's promise of "two mercies for every woe".

Do you feel like you've been sentenced for life in hell? Right here on earth? Whether sickness, depression, or abuse… the price has already been paid for your liberty. You have been redeemed! It's time to get your life back.

The limitations you are experiencing are like a blast of wind in your face. This same wind of adversity is what eagles use to soar.

It's an eagle's perspective that turns adversity into advantage.

But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31

You are designed to fly like an eagle, capable of breaking free of the illusion you are stuck in pain. Pain and suffering are temporal facts but they are not eternal truths. 

I know the pain seems very real, literally debilitating! It may be a season where you need to rest and to receive medical care, if you can afford it. It may or may not help. Please know I'm not belittling your very real pain… I just want to help release you from the trap. 

Doctors today tell us that 80% or more of medical symptoms originate in their patients' minds, not their bodies. I know there are consequences from car wrecks, heavy machinery injuries, and more… but in my own experience, whatever the cause, God has a cure. 

I worked on a hazmat field. I know the trials accidents and injuries can bring. I lived in an abusive marriage where mental injuries produced physical infirmities. I know pain firsthand. I still struggle with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and I'm gradually gaining the victory in those, too.

I have prayed for people and seen instant miracles, gradual healings, and have also seen no healing at all. Sometimes people don't really want the responsibility of being whole. Sometimes they have dedicated their life to darkness, other times they need a change in diet or lifestyle, and other times the resistance is unknown at the time.

A good prayer to pray, in such cases, is "God, expose the darkness."

Three times my own life has been saved from an infirmity that nearly led to death. All I know is that pain is an enemy. It's NOT a cross to bear! Taking up our cross means following Jesus on the path to Life, which means persecution from those in this world's system, mainly from the religious variety!

When I say God doesn't want you to live in pain, I believe it with all my heart.

Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be." Arther Golden

Illusions of fear, doubts, pain and more… the "stuff" that forms our victim mentality and creates a world of lack, of feeling stuck, of loneliness and much more – will vanish when we believe the Truth in our heart. It's the renewing of our minds that brings transformation, as the knowing in our hearts reaches our mind.

Truth: We are created to rule in the midst of our enemies. You gotta have the right attitude, though… like our Papa in Heaven, who laughs!

The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies. ~ Psalm 110:2

But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. (Psalm 2:4)

Truth: We are created to soar, to fly, to peer at the world from far above the universe… and to co-create our world, with Christ.

  

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. (Ephesians 2:6-7)

  

  Truth: To do this we need to be transformed.

 

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2)

 

Truth: The only prerequisite is that we become like children. Children really believe all is possible. Children are teachable. They are not bogged down in temporal facts, but they instinctively know the Truth. Children naturally live in freedom until culture begins chaining them to a fear-based reality.

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

Truth: The Kingdom of Heaven is very near and it's accessible to ordinary people.

As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' (Matthew 10:7)

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. (Hebrews 4:16)

Truth: You become what you behold.

For as he thinketh within himself, so is he: (Proverbs 23:7)

“We become what we think about all day long.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

These are just a few of the truths God has shown me through the years as I've battled through a deep-seated victim mentality. My counselors told me I was the "most abused woman" they had ever met. Because of the way I viewed myself (through my culture's looking glass instead of God's) I adopted my culture's way of thinking. I had shrunk my dreams.

I allowed the deceptive limitations to dictate what I could or couldn't do. I abandoned my destiny. My identity was stolen!

Little did I realize that my choices weren't just affecting my own little life, but they rippled out to my children, my friends, and in some way, to the whole world.

Our little lives matter! We are created to SHINE, to SHIMMER, to GLOW!

Then how they'll shine! shimmer! glow! the young men robust, the young women lovely! (Zechariah 9:17)

So that's what we're doing here, as Heart Scribes, at Team Family Online!

We are learning to recreate our lives and our world. It begins with a simple prayer:

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…. (Matthew 6:9-13)

We are bringing heaven to earth as we step in the gap, sit down with Christ in the heavenlies, and rule in the midst of our enemies. Papa God is restoring our identity as we embrace these truths and walk in a love-based reality instead of fear!

 

With all my love,

Sue

Susan Schiller knows how it feels to lose everything: marriage and family, church and reputation, finances and businesses, and more. Susan's upcoming, interactive memoir, "On the Way Home," tells the story of how she came to be known as "the most abused woman" her counselors had yet met and how she learned to navigate her way out of hell to a rich and satisfying life. In her lifetime, Susan has served in duties ranging from home school mom – to pastor –  to full-time deliverance minister – and to Midwest regional prayer coordinator for a large international ministry. These days you can usually find Susan soaking in her favorite hot springs pool, reading a book (or several), blogging, baking bread, or hanging out with her family and friends. You can pre-order a free copy of Susan's upcoming book, "On the Way Home" by registering here.

Copyright 2014, Susan Schiller, http://TeamFamilyOnline.com.  For reprint permission for any private or commercial use, in any form of media, please contact Susan Schiller.

Tagged as: Choosing Love Today, Create Your World, Deborah White Dove, Getting Your Life Back