Pain In The Offering

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

- lyrics by Matt Redman from Blessed Be Your Name

I have tossed and turned for the past couple of hours. I've been mulling over several things. Most of them painful. The pain of others battling terminal illness. The pain of heavy burdened people. The pain of people continually suffering with health issues, financial set backs and the pain of watching others' loved ones destroy their lives through harmful decision after harmful decision. 

On top of all that are the private pains. Deep seated sorrows. That is when I thought about this song God has used to minister to me on many occasions. I have not heard it in a long time and I particularly remembered these lines. "Though there is pain in the offering..."

If anyone knew about pain in the midst of offering praise and service to God it would be Job. I am currently reading through Job. Job suffered immeasurably. God allowed Satan to push Job beyond the breaking point. Job fought painful battles in his mind. 

At one point Job stated, "Though he slay me, I will yet hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face." [Job 13:15] ESV

Job did not understand the pain. The loss of everyone dear to him except his wife, his possessions and eventually even his health. He regretted the day he was even born. 

Yet, Job still worshiped and hoped in God. Yes, there was pain in the offering but he still maintained hope and he did not cease praising. 

I spent a good deal of yesterday with a retired pastor friend of mine I have mentioned before. We left his care facility to enjoy lunch at Cracker Barrel. He even got to see some of his former parishioners there unexpectedly but divinely appointed. Brother Bob lost his wife to cancer three and a half years ago. Decades before that he lost a son in a tragic car accident near the church he pastored. He faced many other financial and ministerial set backs over the years. He battles his own health issues today. He kept telling me over and over again how good God had been to him. He maintains joy though he lives with pain in the offering. 

There are many who will awake today to seek God with pain in the offering. Brokenhearted wives and mothers. Discouraged husbands and fathers. Feeble senior adults who seem to go from one health crisis to the next. Those hemmed in by circumstances they cannot find a way out. Those disillusioned because it appears God has not come to their rescue. Grieving people over the death of someone they loved. 

On any given week in worship gatherings numerous people offer praise but there is pain in the offering. Many do devotions with pain in the offering. Nobody may see it but God and hear it but God. Songs mixed with sorrow. Praise and prayer mixed with pain. 

I heard the story of what inspired Matt Redman to write that song. There was pain in his offering too. Over the years I have read hundreds and hundreds of books. I have read through the Bible numerous times. The people God uses most in my life to encourage and inspire me are the ones who had pain in their offerings. Joseph. Moses. Job. Jeremiah. Jesus. Paul. David Brainerd. Charles Spurgeon. John Bunyan. Hudson Taylor. Amy Carmichael. Charles Simeon. Jonathan Edwards. Fanny Crosby. Lottie Moon. Elizabeth Elliott. Vance Havner. William Cowper. These all had pain in their offerings. They still praised and served anyway. Even when they did not understand the pain. 

Brainerd suffered from tuberculosis and died at 29. Spurgeon suffered from depression and gout and died in his mid fifties. Bunyan was imprisoned for preaching the word of God. Taylor lost two wives and two children in China on the mission field. Amy Carmichael suffered physically to the point of being bed ridden for several of her latter years. Jonathan Edwards got fired after two decades of faithful ministry in his first pastorate over a theological stand in which Edwards was right. Fanny wrote hymns though blind. Lottie Moon suffered impoverished conditions in her efforts to reach the Chinese people for Christ. Elizabeth suffered her husband being murdered by the very people he tried to reach with the gospel in Ecuador.  Vance Havner lost his wife and survived her many years but still preached and wrote helpful books. Cowper suffered from life long depression even to the point where he tried to take his life more than once, but still wrote moving hymns. 

There is pain in a lot of people's offering. I wonder if God uses the pain in the offering of your service and worship to inspire others? You may never know. You may never understand why you have to go through what you have to go through. 

Thank you for not giving up. Thank you for still showing up even when your heart has not been fully in it. Thank you for singing praise while choking back the tears because of the pain. Thank you for serving when your personal world is crumbling. Thank you for giving and sacrificing when you personally face critical needs others are not aware of. You are an inspiration. A true champion of the faith. Keep on even though there in pain in your offering.