Be In Pain

Micah 4:9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counseller perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. 10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

Be in pain.  This is a strange commandment.  Does the Lord mean this for us?  The Bible is filled with commandment after commandment. Whenever the Lord says “be” he means for us to do it or be it. “Be not afraid.” “Be of good comfort.”  “Be at peace.  Here he says “be in pain.”

We don’t like pain. The older we get the more escalated and different our aches and pains become. When we’re afflicted we want relief. We go to the doctor and they want us to rate our pain on a scale of 1 to 10. Don’t you just want to tell them you’re hurting or you wouldn’t be there?  Yet pain is not necessarily bad. It is the body’s response to something amiss. It’s a signal to us. In this portion of scripture, pain is compared to a woman giving birth. Pains of labor are bad, but when the mother looks at the baby she knows it was all worth it.

Micah told the people they had lost the travail for God’s people. They had lost their burden. The absence didn’t bother them. He told them to be in pain. If we would have more travail over our lost, we would have more peace. A mother knows she must travail to be happy and hold that baby. We don’t want that for ourselves when it comes to the lost. We want to be comfortable. We don’t pray, don’t have the burden and don’t have the concern we should. We become defeated and accept that they are lost. Micah says to be in pain.

It’s the mother’s biological role to bear the pain. She cannot expect someone else to bear it for her. We can’t expect someone to bear the pain for our lost. We need to bear it for them. We need to be willing to travail. Isaiah said that when Zion travails, children are born.  It won’t hurt us to be stirred up and lose sleep over a lost family member. It is travail with a purpose. A burden is a weight. How much does our burden weigh? Lord, give me a greater burden.

We must have a vision. As long as we do, we will see the condition the lost are in. We will pray more and give more of our time to witness. Lord, give me the vision.

We must see what normally isn’t seen. We see others smile while concealed is the emptiness and injury of sin. We see the surface only. Lord, give me perception.

This is serious enough to be serious about it. It is not to be taken lightly. The whole course of life comes back to the soul. It all goes to an end. Lord, give me a concern.

Be in pain. It’s the mother, not the child that has pain. We have to be in pain for the lost. The more a person is prayed for, the more conviction he or she will feel. There is a danger for them. They are here today and may be gone tomorrow. Even if they don’t appear to be unhappy, there is a vacuum inside. Nothing will help it. There is something missing and we have it.  Be in pain for them.  Jesus took all our pain on Calvary. Through his travail of death and the grave he bore pain for us.  We in turn need to travail for others.

Are we willing to suffer? Are we willing to lose sleep? Are we willing to go the second mile? Are we willing to suffer a little embarrassment?  Would we rather see them suffer in hell for eternity than to suffer for them a little now?

God says to be in pain and soon the joy will be worth it.  Labored travailed brings forth children. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much is your pain?