Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your daily prayer,
Speaker 1: where we help you find the words you need to
Speaker 1: connect to your Father in Heaven. No matter what's happening
Speaker 1: in your life today, you can trust that God wants
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Right after this short word from
Speaker 1: our sponsors, we'll pray through today's prayer for perseverance through Pain.
Speaker 1: A Prayer for Perseverance through Pain written and read by
Speaker 1: Leah Gerard. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: Whenever you trials of many kinds, because you know that
Speaker 1: the testing of your faith produces perseverance, Let perseverance finish
Speaker 1: its work so that you may be mature and complete,
Speaker 1: not lacking anything. James one two through four. In the
Speaker 1: first chapter of the five chapter Book of James, James
Speaker 1: opens with hearty encouragement to the twelve scattered tribes of Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: To these first Christians in the thick of persecution, James
Speaker 1: offers a bold perspective on their trials. He asks them
Speaker 1: to consider them pure joy. When James, half brother of Jesus,
Speaker 1: wrote this epistle, which is one of the earliest New
Speaker 1: Testament letters, Christians were being driven into poverty and hunger
Speaker 1: while they're grappling to survive, James adjusts their focus to
Speaker 1: what faith can produce. He knew that going through pain
Speaker 1: or hardha can forge compassion for others, humility, and the
Speaker 1: realization that earthly experiences are temporary. The Book of James
Speaker 1: is relatively short, but it's also a very practical guide,
Speaker 1: full of memorable commands for real daily struggles. I've tucked
Speaker 1: this bit of scripture away in my heart and found
Speaker 1: it useful recently while recovering from knee surgeries. Believe me,
Speaker 1: it helps to think positively while surgery isn't healing like
Speaker 1: I thought it would. I walk differently now, and my
Speaker 1: body aches pretty much all of the time. Yet in
Speaker 1: the grand scheme of trials, a post injury arthritic knee
Speaker 1: is nothing. However, the pain has persisted for years, and
Speaker 1: the frustration is real. Chronic pain is just one of
Speaker 1: many trials that could test our faith. We wonder when
Speaker 1: there's pain of any kind, is God really our savior, healer,
Speaker 1: our strength? Which is why the trial at hand is
Speaker 1: ultimately for our good. It builds in us a tenacity
Speaker 1: to keep pursuing God's plan for us, to stay in
Speaker 1: prayer with him about the direction of our lives and
Speaker 1: to essentially see what we're made of. There's a kind
Speaker 1: of wise maturity that develops over time through trials. When
Speaker 1: you start to learn you're not indestructible. You can choose
Speaker 1: to believe that despite your current condition, you're still within
Speaker 1: God's plan, So you persist in finding treatment, therapy, guidance,
Speaker 1: or whatever will carry you through your current trial as
Speaker 1: you hold fast to your faith that God works all
Speaker 1: things for good, and pain tends to push us toward
Speaker 1: rather than away from, God, heightening our awareness that we
Speaker 1: need a higher power. Always surrendering whatever life throws you
Speaker 1: in prayer and petition to God can relieve you from
Speaker 1: having to have it all figured out. And that kind
Speaker 1: of faith that encourages hope through pain is truly a
Speaker 1: remarkable joy. It's not a fleeting happiness, but a deep
Speaker 1: seated comfort that comes from realizing it's not all up
Speaker 1: to you. That Christ did indeed promise trouble in this world,
Speaker 1: but as you persevere, you invite God to complete you. Recently,
Speaker 1: I listened to a podcast interview with a man who
Speaker 1: couldn't find pain relief for years after a traumatic surfing incident,
Speaker 1: so he decided to become a neurological doctor to find
Speaker 1: his own cure. A large part of his discovery was
Speaker 1: that our brains have an awesome capacity to make decisions
Speaker 1: about pain and healing. He noticed that when his son
Speaker 1: made him a laugh during his grueling physical therapy exercises,
Speaker 1: he felt no pain. This showed him that where we
Speaker 1: put our focus matters greatly when we're in pain. For Christians,
Speaker 1: this means we can set our minds on a joy
Speaker 1: that eclipses our trials, and in the process we gain
Speaker 1: wisdom about ourselves as we grow in maturity. In time,
Speaker 1: you realize that the promises you keep as a Christian
Speaker 1: are always more powerful than any pain. Let's pray. Dear God,
Speaker 1: you see the trial I'm in. Help me shift my
Speaker 1: focus from the pain to the joy I have in
Speaker 1: knowing who you are. Show me how to take care
Speaker 1: of myself during this trial, and grow in me the
Speaker 1: qualities I need to proture in my faith. Fill me
Speaker 1: with your peace so that I can freely trust that
Speaker 1: you know the outcome and that I am always in
Speaker 1: your loving hands. Thank you Lord, Amen. Your daily prayer
Speaker 1: is a production of life audio and Salem media. If
Speaker 1: you liked what you heard today, be sure to follow
Speaker 1: our sister show your nightly prayer. You can find your
Speaker 1: nightly prayer at lifeaudio dot com or in your favorite
Speaker 1: podcast app. By following your daily prayer and your nightly prayer,
Speaker 1: you can be sure that your day begins and ends
Speaker 1: centered on the Word of God and prayer