Spiritual Fitness & Living With Chronic Pain

When you’re at the place where pain, whether physical or emotional, stops you dead in your tracks, I encourage you to resist giving up and to continue onward no matter the circumstances.

From my experience with living with chronic pain, I’ve discovered some very tough lessons through intense times of bodily suffering, fatigue and deep depression.

One loss on top of another can definitely complicate your ability to see the light of day; all the while, dimming any hope of living a productive lifestyle ever again.

I know what I’m about to say sounds crazy, but please listen because it’s very important. This crossroads where you’re positioned is the place to begin rebuilding your life.

And when your condition is chronic, meaning this unhealthy cycle repeats itself over and over again, year after year, this is when you have an opportunity to do something constructive, instead of being disheartened to the point of giving up.

I encourage you to voluntarily resign to the reality of nothingness about your circumstances. Please do not misunderstand what I’m trying to say. I’m absolutely not suggesting that you become fixated on lowly thoughts or that you adopt abnormal living habits.

On the contrary, I’m referring to something much deeper spiritually and something very real for your recovery.

While your flesh (body, mind, emotions and will) might want the trials of painful adversity to be completely eliminated immediately, God might actually be using this form of suffering as a way of developing your true spiritual wholeness.

What I mean is this. Your pain might be the cross you must bear so you’ll learn how to obediently resign to nothingness. In other words, this might be the best way for you to actually “die to self” or “to become more aware of eternal realties.”

When resigning to nothingness, this is exactly when your faith will direct you into the rest of God. And from this construct this is where the life of Christ will begin to fully manifest through you.

By resigning to nothingness, you’re becoming less. By giving yourself to God, He’s becoming more in you. You’ll find that your trust will practically grow in knowing God through suffering.

For the most part, the pain will no longer remain the centerpiece of despair in your life. Rather, it will simply signal you to give yourself, including all of your anxieties, quickly unto God.

Think of your dark times as opportunities of spiritual growth. I know some of these thoughts are deeply profound. Yet, the spiritual things do become real when we set our minds to believe in them.

In essence, the more you decrease, the more He will increase in you, giving you the true meaning of freedom and healing.

Your dark clouds will eventually fade away because your newfound confidence of faith will enlighten your entire being about the realness of the eternal things to come.

Just some helpful thoughts about living with chronic pain and spiritual fitness…

To your health,