Chained with pain...

Chained with pain...

Every once  in a while, I have the opportunity to be "chained with pain" I will call it...my whole body seems to be filled with infection that leaves me wracked with pain in every fiber of it..even my hair aches...I take yet another round of antibiotics and within a few days I am back to "normal" with no pain, but wondering when it will appear again.  There doesn't seem to be a pattern of when it will hit nor why...sometimes it is one kind of bacteria and other times it is another...with no rhyme or reason...it just is there and must be endured...aging...they say...anatomy...hereditary ....???... Endurance...perseverance...

I had had it yet again this week and was reading in 2 Timothy 2---
2 Timothy 2:8-13 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.
This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we disown him, he will also disown us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

Paul is writing to Timothy with passion...here he is chained as a criminal for his love of the gospel, his dedication and declaration of God's word...saying that God's word won't be boxed into that cell with him, nor silenced because of chains...God's promises will continue on, His faithfulness is eternal ...outside into the world...He is not silenced...nor confined...He is everlasting...

I am suffering a little here, but it is fleeting compared with eternity...I have watched my parents and husband suffer through their final illnesses, knowing that they were faithful and that they would enter into their eternal home, forgetting the "chains of pain"... Thank YOU...that there are those who went before like Paul who endured so much but knew where he was promised to enter with Jesus the resurrection ...

Psalm 36:5-7 Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.