This is one of the lies that the enemy used to put a wedge between God and me. The lie was: “You must have ways of escape if God’s way doesn’t work. There is too much pain!” You need to have a Back Door.
The truth is that all God’s ways work. God has given us His Holy Word, the Bible, to guide us through life in this fallen world. He has also given us His Son, Jesus Christ, the God Man, fully God and fully Man, to be our Savior and our Good Shepherd, to guide us through this “vale of tears” and “the valley of the shadow of death”.
The truth is that God will never let the pain get to be too much for us. He understands our frame … He remembers that we are dust. Pain is actually ablessing. That was one of the bad things about leprosy. It was a disease that deadened the pain receptors. A man with leprosy could lay his hand on a hot stove and not know that he was damaging a part of his body. Pain tells us that something is wrong and that it needs attention.
Jesus Christ, our Savior, is willing to walk us through the pain, so that we can see what is wrong and correct it. So, when I face a painful situation, I invite Jesus to help me walk through it and learn from it. Isaiah the prophet, in chapter 61, records the future words of Jesus: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners …”
Instead of seeking a Back Door, God wants us to dedicate and commit ourselves to Him. Paul, the Apostle, in Romans 12, says: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
The Apostle Peter wrote, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”