"God is teaching me something through this pain - I need to learn the lesson first."
How it sounds in your head: Every Christian around you says suffering produces character. Your small group leader said God wouldn't waste this pain. If you get healed too quickly, you'll miss what God is trying to teach you. Be patient, be humble, learn the lesson. Then maybe you'll be ready for breakthrough.
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."
-- James 1:17Religious teaching that makes God the author of pain and suffering, requiring you to extract lessons before He'll heal you.
Romans 5:3 talks about suffering producing perseverance. Every sermon you've heard frames pain as a classroom. Wanting immediate healing feels immature, like you're trying to skip the growth process. Spiritual people seem to embrace suffering longer.
Blind from birth, disciples asked, 'Who sinned - him or his parents - that he was born blind?' Jesus said NEITHER - 'but that the works of God should be revealed in him.' Then IMMEDIATELY healed him. Didn't wait for a lesson. Didn't require patience first. Instant mud, instant sight.
I REFUSE the lie that God is teaching me through pain. IT IS WRITTEN: 'Every good gift comes from the Father' - and pain is not good, so it's not from Him. Jesus healed EVERYONE who came, never once saying 'wait, learn patience first.' The Spirit is called the TEACHER (John 14:26), not pain. IT IS WRITTEN: 'The thief comes to steal, kill, destroy. I came to give LIFE' - I will not blame the Giver of Life for the thief's work. The man born blind got instant healing with zero lesson-learning requirement. The BARAK blessing doesn't include 'lessons through suffering' - it includes commanded blessing on everything I put my hand to. I learn from the Spirit, not from pain.
While you're trying to journal about what God is teaching through suffering, Father is running toward you confused why you'd credit Him with what the enemy sent. He's not waiting for you to learn something - He's the one who healed the man sick 38 YEARS without one question about lessons learned.