~ written by Connie Dunmyer
Repetition is an essential part of education. Repetition is crucial for children to master new skills and concepts through play and exploration. As we grow, repetition through practice exercises, homework, and review sessions is essential for knowledge retention and exam preparation. And even as adults, repetition is the foundation for developing expertise in any skill, from playing a musical instrument to performing surgery.
Well, apparently God is trying to get me to master a new concept. This new concept blew my mind so much, it rearranged my eyebrows! God has been putting this idea, this concept, these scriptures in front of my face from every possible direction. Caution: this information may cause spontaneous jaw drops. Side effects may include staring into space and questioning everything! So here we go . . .
Jesus actually suffers when I suffer!
Jesus actually feels the pain I am feeling right now!
Jesus wears my wounds – mirrors my misery – bleeds where I bruise.
My pain is His pulse.
Ok. So perhaps you are smarter than me, and you may be saying “well, duh!” But have you truly considered this on a personal basis? Have you pictured the pain in your gut, actually being felt by Jesus? Not theoretically. Not only on the cross. But right now. Have you considered that Jesus is crying WITH you? Because that picture never entered my mind.
Isaiah 63:9 NIV “In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”
God is not only with us in our afflictions, but He Himself shares them. . . He watches over us in our afflictions, setting and maintaining that boundary beyond which He will not permit the Evil One to pass; and it is His presence with us in our trials that saves us from their inherent evil.
When He (Jesus) confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). . . Because His people were in union with Him, to persecute them was to persecute Him. . . And because You are in union with Christ, He shares your adversities. ~ “Trusting God”
Jesus shares our distresses. He is NOT distressed, but He does identify with our adversities as His own. He doesn’t merely look at us in pain and “feel sorry” for us. He must actually FEEL the pain we feel. Jesus didn’t say to Saul “why are you persecuting my people” – He said “why do you persecute me”.
To be completely honest, I generally think of Jesus as being with me primarily “after the trouble”. So kind of like a Doctor. Or even like the Shepherd carrying the lost/hurt lamb back to the fold. These are, of course. true renditions of what He is for us. But here, what I’m receiving is that when I am “buffeted,” JESUS is the One taking the blows. To be sure, I get smacked around a bit – but Jesus HAS and IS being caused pain because of what it happening to me (and you).
That is extraordinary. Seriously – mind blown!
Psalm 56:8 ESV “You have kept count of my tossings [wanderings]; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”
Well no wonder Jesus holds my tears! He is crying along with me. Not just sitting beside me – but IN me. Every single pang, hurt, thought, fear, discouragement, lack, emptiness, illness is going through Him. Yes, Jesus certainly sees the end result and the reasons, whereas I do not. But that’s why He asks me to simply trust Him. He sees the end. He is handling the issue, the pain. He is taking the blows for me. He is taking the lashes. On the cross, yes, but also now. Even today.
God has promised to deliver us, not necessarily from our afflictions themselves, but from the evil that Satan would work through them. Sometimes He delivers us OUT OF our many afflictions, and sometimes IN THEM; but always He delivers us FROM EVIL. ~ “Trusting God”
Psalm 34:19 NIV “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all;”
Job 36:15 NIV “But those who suffer, he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction.”
The past few years have certainly been difficult. I am still in the midst of such suffering that there appears to no longer be a way out. Yet I believe! Somehow during this time, I have become closer to Jesus than at any other point in my life. There’s something supernatural that happens in the pain that is shared by both the finite being, and the Infinite Savior. And apparently it has to do with the fact that “I” am not the only one suffering. Jesus is suffering right along with me.
The fact that He has pointed that out to me multiple ways from multiple places at multiple times – seems like it’s a message He wants me to remember. More than a reminder. It’s a point of emphasis so important, He is making it a focal point – a practice point – a repetition to be repeated to the point of it becoming a natural way of life.
So what is that emphasis point? I believe it to be this: that we are ONE – one with Jesus, one with the Father, one with each other.
John 17:22-23 NIV “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
It occurs to me that we, as a people, as a Body of Believers, are missing Oneness. Oh we say it, don't we. . . "One Body, One Spirit". But do I live it? The sharing of pain. When I hurt. Jesus hurts. When you hurt. Jesus hurts. Ergo, when you hurt, I hurt. When I hurt, you hurt. We are one.
Just as there is something supernatural that happens when our pain is shared by Jesus - there is something supernatural that happens when others' pain is shared by us. We are one.
Let’s blow the worlds’ minds by connecting, feeling, and sharing each other’s pain . . . it's loving the way Jesus loves.