"God must be teaching me something through this chronic pain I need to learn."
How it sounds in your head: Maybe I'm supposed to develop patience or compassion through suffering. Perhaps God is keeping me humble or preparing me for something. I don't want to miss the lesson and stay in pain longer.
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."
-- John 10:10Religious teaching (religion) making God the author of suffering and pain a divine classroom.
Well-meaning Christians have told her 'God doesn't waste suffering' and that trials build character. It gives meaning to years of pain—if she's learning, at least it's not pointless.
She had a spirit of infirmity for 18 YEARS and couldn't straighten up at all. Jesus didn't say 'wait until you learn the lesson'—He immediately called her forward, said she was LOOSED from her infirmity, and she was made straight IMMEDIATELY.
I REFUSE the lie that God is teaching me through pain. IT IS WRITTEN that Jesus came to give ABUNDANT life, and chronic pain is not abundance—it's theft from the enemy. God doesn't need to inflict suffering to teach me; He sent the Holy Spirit as my Teacher and His Word as my lesson. Jesus healed the woman bent double after 18 years WITHOUT one lecture about what she should have learned. IT IS WRITTEN that it's the GOODNESS of God that leads to repentance, not suffering. I am Abraham's seed, and the BARAK blessing includes health, not pain as pedagogy. I declare I receive God's teaching through His WORD and His healing through Jesus' STRIPES—both are mine NOW.
Your Father isn't standing back with a clipboard grading your pain endurance. He's weeping with you and extending nail-scarred hands that already paid for your healing. He teaches through His Word and Spirit, not through making His daughter suffer.