Will Our Pain Always Follow Us

Some of you may be aware that my wife Jennifer gave birth to Rowan a few Sundays ago in the morning. I got to tell you how proud I am of her for bearing the pain during labor. She labored without any type of pain medication! During her labor, she repeated to herself with this Scripture- John 16:21 (NASB): "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. After the birth, she has completely forgotten the pain she went through having Rowan. She joyfully embraced Rowan into her arms! Its just so amazing to see how her facial expression being changed so quickly from pain to joy! Similarly, we, brothers and sisters in Christ, go through various painful situations in our lives that we think/feel we cannot handle. The pain may vary from losing loved ones, losing jobs, insufficient finances, being betrayed or deceived by our earthly or church family members, friends, or co-workers, and other kinds of sufferings we are facing nowadays. Im sure that the pain we are facing may be a great pain in our necks -making us feel like it is way too much for us to handle. We may sometimes want to give up easily. Its natural for all of us to want to avoid such pain as much as possible; however, we also need to understand that there is no way that we can avoid the pains throughout our time on Earth; it would be very nice if that were possible. 7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NASB) This Scripture shows the evidence that Paul did seek the Lord to take away his suffering, but He chose not to take the thorn from the flesh of Paul for the purpose of His glory. I think its good that we sometimes suffer pain throughout our lives so we can be reminded that our Lord is omnipresent and is here to lend His hand to us at any time (Matthew 11:28-30)! Its for His glory as long as we stand firmly in the midst of difficulties through the strength of our Lord (Philippians 4:13). We also need to remember that our home here on Earth is temporary, but our permanent home is in heaven. Therefore, let us persevere throughout all hardships/sufferings till the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to take our pains away forever and ever (Revelation 21:4). Once we get the victory by going home with Jesus Christ, we will quickly forget our pains like a mother who has just given birth to her baby and forgets the anguish of labor.