I’m trying to understand something that you teach but I need further explanation of what you mean. Please answer this question and feel free to post it to your web-site for others to read. I’ve heard you say that, “God has never hurt you or brought pain into your life.” I agree that God has never hurt me. That point is easy to understand. I would never hurt one of my children to teach them something either. It’s the second part that I’m struggling with about how God has never brought pain into my life. Are you differentiating pain from discipline? Are they two separate items? For example, God has put me in certain situations, like a particular job, where I was very uncomfortable with my surroundings or the people I was working with but in the midst of all that God was developing my character and I additionally developed a new job skill that I would not have picked up at any other company. Doesn’t God put us in certain “trying” situations at times for the purpose of character development, etc.? I know I put my own kids in situations that, at times, they don’t enjoy but it actually develops their character. Maybe I’m misunderstanding your definition of pain. Please shed some light on this for me. P.S. Your book, “Grace the Power to Change” taught me something I had never realized before.I’ve had Mercy and Grace mixed up. What I always thought was grace is really mercy. Thanks.

Your question is a very legitimate question that needs to be answered. Like many truths there are subtleties that seem to be insignificant, but in the end have a great influence on our willingness to trust God. While I will attempt to answer this question, I would highly recommend that you read my book “The Gospel of Peace.” It will answer many questions related to this subject that we can’t address in this space. Religion has taught us that God uses pain and suffering to teach us. Yet, God says that He uses the Word and the Spirit. In the parable of the sower we see that it is the Word that grows and bears fruit, and that pain, suffering, cares and concerns for this life actually choke the Word and make it unfruitful. James 1:13-14 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.” NKJV. The word “tempt” according Thayer’s and Strong’s means to tempt, test, try or scrutinize. So no man should ever say that he is tempted, tested, tried or scrutinized by God. The only test God has for us is the test of faith. In other words He makes us promises and we choose to believe or not believe. The Holy Spirit draws us and convinces us to trust God.

The pain comes in several ways:
1. When I do not follow God/integrity/truth I end up in situations that are difficult. In those situations I turn to God and He teaches me. He turns the curse into the blessing. (Deuteronomy 23:5.) That pain was not from God; it could have been avoided by following God. That pain only has value in that I used it as an indicator that I was not on an acceptable path.

2. Our conscience often brings us pain. Sometimes when we see the truth and realize that we are off the path, our own heart/conscience will smite us. Again that pain can be an indicator or it can be something that leads us to condemnation. Either way it is not from God; it is merely our response.

3. The Greek word for “discipline” is “child train.” It is specifically a form of child training that is done by tenderness and compelling. The scripture says He disciplines/trains us as the child he delights in. True, He will let us go the way we choose, but he never sends us in a destructive way. He is the one who is gently, lovingly compelling us to come back to the path of life.

Pain is always a matter of my choices and/or my responses. While it serves as an indicator, I still realize that it is not from God. I once heard Charles Capps tell a great story. He said that he would take his grandson to watch the firemen put out the fires in their small community. When they would arrive on the scene, the trucks and the firemen would always be there putting out the fire. One day his grandson asked, “Why do these firemen start all of these fires?”
He assumed that because they were always there on the scene they must be the ones starting the fires. Likewise, we assume that because God always shows up in a tragedy He must have sent it to accomplish that purpose. Like many wrong assumptions it leads us to strange doctrine that makes it difficult to understand and trust God.

One of the reasons I trust Him unconditionally, is I know that He will never bring pain into my life. Faith/trust works by love. You can never love a person you fear. If you think they will hurt you there will always be fear. 1 John 4:18 in The Living Bible says it best. “We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us and shows us that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us.”