Pastor Craig Groeschel is of the opinion that people don’t hate pain; they only hate pain without a purpose. Otherwise, people will pay money to run a painful marathon, or they’ll choose to give birth to kids for the desired reward, he says.
“It’s my opinion that people don’t hate pain,” Groeschel says. “What they hate is, they hate pain without a purpose. People hate pain when there’s no reason they see attached to the pain. For example, there’s a car wreck and someone gets hurt, or you test positive for COVID-19, or you lose your job, and you wonder, God, where are You in this? …
“Whenever it feels like the devil is attacking, when he’s testing you, it’s important to remember that sometimes, God’s preparation comes packaged as pain. … It’s especially easy in this season just to look and say, ‘Well, here’s what I’ve lost, here’s what’s not fair, here’s what I used to have, here’s what I was going to do. We were gonna go here for vacation and we had this much money saved, and now that’s gone. This just isn’t great.’ … Realize that God may be doing something in you before He does something through you.”
