Spiritual Fitness & Living With Chronic Pain

“From my heart I sing praises of You…Father, Spirit, Son…

Father…In these moments of reflection with You…I literally put myself out there to partake in the trust You’ve provided me…Lord, though I grow in grace, the enemy of fear attacks wildly against the core of my being…Being naked, vulnerable and exposed from the inside seems to guide my anxieties in the wrong direction…Lord, this morning I give You my broken and contrite heart…the sanctifying process of salvation…the hidden things that try to reap havoc within my integrity of Your righteousness…God – thank you for Your holiness and standard of perfection…I confess my own sense of pride against the weaker who experience lesser trials…In the name of Jesus, I give You this haughty spirit…Continue to work through me by Your Holy Spirit…May Your resurrection life geometrically bless those who come to repentance and belief…Lord, I pray for those who experience pain and waver in faith…Give me words of truth to speak and write to dispel false beliefs for those who are dull and stubborn about anything eternal…This morning, I praise You for calmness in the midst of the storm…I openly confess my insecurities, knowing Your grace sufficiently equips me for the mission ahead…Heavenly Father, I’m sorry if I ever put You in a box that might disfigure Your character and limit the infinite possibilities of Your loving character…Forgive me for my times of doubt…As I trek through this journey of open prayer, please teach me how to pray even more effectively for the orphans, widows, poor and afflicted…Keep my steps held in place to Your paths…In the name of Your Son, grant protection over my two sons, and my beautiful wife…Gird Cherise with Your presence today and bless the family business with richness of the new life, as well as with the provision of heaven…Only You supply what we need most…what is nutritious for our entire beings…

Today is blessed because of You…By Your Son’s death and life from the cross, I surrender to You…Amen…”

“Heavenly Father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…

In this solemn place I praise You for Who You are…Great in Mercy…Faithful always, extending abundant pardon to everyone who calls upon Your holy name…Father…I have a prayer request to submit to you through the faithful access of Your Son, Jesus Christ, Who sits on the right hand throne…In His almighty, powerful, yet humble Name, I confidently ask for this journey of faith about chronic pain to be anointed by Your Spirit…Ultimately make known its purpose through sanctification and glory to You…Father, through obedience of grace, strengthen me with compassionate understanding and words of inspirational encouragement…Please direct my footsteps with fortified peace…In the name of Jesus, I declare the beauty of Your healing power…Without question of doubt, I desire to speak the truth about Your magnificence and Your eternal paradise…Lord, please assist me about the navigation of the inner human soul toward redemption…Tonight, my heart rejoices with enthusiasm regarding the reality of Your presence…Everything seems okay even in the midst of deception and downfall…I submit myself as a servant to this entrepreneurial endeavor for the congregation of the elect…Thank you for everything…May the blood of Your Son be sprinkled over my life, my families and everyone I come in contact with, sanctifying them in reverent holiness and respect for Your unfathomable love…Breathe life into areas of death…Bring comfort for those who are grossly afflicted…Show the awesomeness of freedom from the mention of Jesus Christ…Lord…I end with a few intimate words which describe my tears of love for You…These describe my times of testing and also express the victory You have over the enemy of darkness…With deliberate intention…I express my thankfulness of faith about how You create salvation within the human soul to make us a part of an everlasting kingdom…Teach all of us, with grace and mercy, how to walk by faith and how to embrace this new life, on earth and in heaven…

Good night…And I ask these things from the wellspring of Your lovingkindness…Amen…”

Though I’m not pain-free by any stretch, praise, for me, still remains as an integral expression of thankfulness to God. I think some people truly miss the mark when it comes to praising God.

Here’s what I simply mean…

Edmund Soper writes, “Praise is the highest duty that any creature can discharge. Man’s chief end is to glorify God.” But how can we honestly praise God when pain and poverty hover over everything else in our lives?

We can praise God accordingly when we really understand what praise represents. Praise is this…

When we confidently know about our spiritual conversion, the inner part of us instinctively celebrates the reality of heaven – in terms of our past, present and hopeful future. Praise starts on the inside of man and then is expressed outwardly. In contrast, if we start to praise God by shouting, singing, lifting hands, speaking in tongues, etc., and then expect change and healing to occur because of our praiseworthy efforts, then this is a far cry from the intent and nature of praise.

With praise, the hardcore reality of election (being a believer of Jesus Christ) overrides the demands for personal prayer petitions.

Praise expresses the truth about salvation, knowing that spiritual breakthrough and personal expansion exceeds the “idea” stage about faith. Praise honors God for His sovereign participation with salvation and the fullness of life freely given to the believer.

Praise is powerful, even against the shouting voices of painful hardships and spiritually bankrupt souls. Praise reaffirms the inner transformation of man through faith. The inner man sings praises of the Redeemer. The inner recognizes the eternally new heart given to him by faith in Christ. The inner parts of man shout praises to God, realizing that a new citizenship exists in heaven. Praise is all of this.

That is why I can praise God even though chronic pain tries to spoil the party.

Keep me on your favorites.  For more about living with chronic pain and spiritual fitness visit me at .www.gordonselley.com

Two words jump from the pages of Psalms during my reading time.

The first word is destruction, commonly translated as “pit of noise.” And the second is lovingkindness – from the Hebrew word “hesed,” meaning “loyal love.”

When living with chronic pain or when experiencing doubt about faith or when trying to make changes in life, these two words fight against each other in our minds and consequently, affect our behavioral choices.

Today is a crummy day for me. The weather patterns have shifted again. I’ve spent overtime on my computer trying to keep up with the thoughts that God continues to fill within my mind.

So for me, my erratic nervous system sends outrageous impulses of pain throughout my body, making me to feel as if everything inside of me is noisy. It’s like shaking a cup of water with a thin layer of dirt in the bottom of the glass. The water becomes murky when shaken. That’s how my body and soul feel today.

On the other hand, the Spirit of Truth within me also reminds me of the permanent reality of loyal love. I know I must keep my mindset firm on His faithful commitment of love for us who believe in Him.

While the shaken body lusts for comfort, I know this inner turbulence pales in comparison to remaining committed in faith.

One of the purposes of pain helps us to grow in the knowledge of Christ, experiencing the actuality of love in the midst of a destructive world. The loyal love of God certainly supersedes the noisy distractions of destructive influences.

Keep me on your favorites.  For more about living with chronic pain and spiritual fitness visit me at .www.gordonselley.com

Q:  How does faith help when you have pain?

A:  When wondering how faith helps the painfully afflicted, you must consider the fact that God is somehow involved in the process.  Because when you mention faith, it is literally impossible to exclude God from the conversation.  The two – faith and God – go hand in hand, being tightly interconnected to give you a new will, a new spirit and a new life.

Faith isn’t something you just imagine on your own.  It’s very real, in which truth is central when you become justified before God through having faith in Jesus Christ.

And as this specifically relates to pain, the truth of the matter is that suffering creates an opening within yourself in which faith can help you to navigate through a better way of living, and eventually, to experience the reality of perfect healing.

For now, dwell on this point.  Faith helps you to realize the more meaningful ways to live and massages your heart toward completeness…

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After helping another with the clean up from her spilled coffee this morning, I was awestruck by her reaction.  Sometimes the simplicity of kindness leads to great appreciation.  It got me thinking.

Oftentimes with leadership, it’s just as important to keep doing the small stuff as it is to get credit for the larger accomplishments.  And when living with chronic pain or when trying to make changes, the least spectacular and the unnoticed acts of initiative are sometimes the most momentous in the development of personal and/or professional growth.

When taking care of the ordinary things with excellence, this leads to an outflow of productive proficiency, regardless if we’re talking about preparing a dinner, losing a few pounds, mending a broken relationship, coping with pain better, or perhaps, trying to find a new job, just a short list of possibilities.

So keep doing the small things, even if others do not notice its importance.  This is one way to walk in holiness, knowing that God notices everything we do, which by the way, He promises to fully reward.

“Often the crowd does not recognize a leader until he has gone, and then they build a monument for him with the stone they once threw at him in life” (anonymous).

Keep me on your favorites.  For more about living with chronic pain and spiritual healing visit me at .www.gordonselley.com

When I speak about things like faith and God and spiritual healing as these relate to dealing with chronic pain, I’m not doing so for the purposes of escapism.  As we already know… problems do not simply evaporate if we live in the spiritual clouds and forfeit any accountability for the challenges left on the ground of life.

The goal in sharing the truth about how God works through our lives is not to try to create a Christian utopia through escapism.  Rather it is to show people how they can get a hold of life as God intended in His kingdom.  It’s a way marked by faith and truly becoming transformed from old to new.  The new aptly applies to the messiness of this world.

The presentation of true Christian experience brings us face to face with spiritual beauty, a beauty that can never be forced or imitated, and yet its magnificence becomes manifest in the realities of our everyday existence.  

The spiritually abstract becomes concrete by faith, in which adopting wise actions to circumstances proves profitable for all aspects of human life.

Keep me on your favorites.  For more about living with chronic pain and spiritual healing visit me at .www.gordonselley.com

While it might seem like childlike strength is weak and underdeveloped, in terms of ability to overcome fear and adversity, nothing could be further from the truth when considering its mighty influence relative to belief. 

Simply, having childlike faith in God proves victorious against any obstacles of life. 

“Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3, NASB).

Once any of us becomes a child of God our lives are eternally changed, including our very own sin nature and the new life to be fully lived by faith.

Think about children for a second.  Don’t they often wander helplessly in the wrong direction?  Don’t they also hurt themselves foolishly?  Don’t they seem to lack understanding?  Of course, we could answer “yes” to all of these questions, but it does not mean that frailty and foolish willfulness are the only dominant features of children.

On the contrary, children are drawn to those who are peaceful and happy.  They flinch from those who are crusty and angry.  Children have fresh new perspectives about how to live with curiosity and trust.  It’s from this reference point that we can glean some wisdom from childlike faith – because it helps to peel away the layers of adult hardness from our own hearts, including skepticism and bitterness and unforgiveness about the brokenness of our human condition.

Childlike faith allows us to jump into the lap of Jesus Christ, spiritually, in which we are made pure and whole.  We don’t have to carry around the baggage of past mistakes, regardless of how huge they might seem to us or how adversely they may have affected others, especially those so close to us.  Instead, as children of God, we can freely confess our unspeakable sins and live by His forgiving grace.  Like children, we can have a new start at life, learning how to trust God even more and how to get along with others even better.

Isn’t this truly love in its highest form and most comprehensive sense? I think so…Christ had an uncanny way of accepting all children regardless of fault.  He really understood the makeup of children and the development of humanity.

It’s only the true humanity of Christ that can bring us into the true conception of God, and also, into true interrelations with Him.

Consider adopting childlike faith to strengthen your position against any kind of adversity, even those that are self-induced.  These seem to be especially painful…

Keep me on your favorites.  For more about living with chronic pain and spiritual healing visit me at www.gordonselley.com.