NO PAIN NO GAIN

²³ I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’

Hosea 2:23a (NIV)

We have a lot of sayings in the English language that serve us as being great lessons or great advice. Here are several: What goes around comes around. You reap what you sow.  You are what you eat. Don’t eat yellow snow. Don’t spit in the wind.

But the one I was thinking about this morning during my 30 minute stationary bike ride was “No pain no gain.” If I want to see some results in weight loss I have to push past the pain. Pain sometimes can be a real good thing. Did you know that in church history, the church grew the most during times of persecution? It was during the pain that the Kingdom experienced the gain.

God says, “I will plant her for myself...“ What He’s literally saying here is that He will plant the church after the example of her Lord. What was the example? In His suffering. Persecution is important for the church to thrive. As it’s been said: "The blood of Christians was their harvest-seed." Here’s the thing we need to consider: If we’re not experiencing a push back from the enemy we need to ask ourselves are we doing anything worth him attacking? Are we a threat to the devil? If not he’ll leave us alone.

Questions to consider:

What are you doing that threatens the enemy?

What can you do to threaten the enemy?

What will you do to threaten the enemy?