"My arthritis pain is God's will teaching me patience through suffering."
How it sounds in your head: I've heard so many sermons about suffering building character. Maybe this constant pain is God's tool to make me more like Christ. If I try to eliminate it with medication, am I resisting His sanctification process?
"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."
-- Acts 10:38Religious lie that makes God the author of disease, attributing His character to the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
The pain has been here so long it feels purposeful, like God is using it. Spiritual teachers have said suffering is God's classroom, so maybe pursuing relief is avoiding His lesson.
Peter's mother-in-law was lying sick with fever. Jesus didn't lecture her about patience through suffering or character development—He immediately touched her hand, the fever left, and she arose and served them. Instant relief, no spiritual lesson required.
I REFUSE the lie that my pain is God's teaching tool. IT IS WRITTEN that Jesus healed ALL who were oppressed by the devil because God was with Him—sickness oppresses, and my Father doesn't oppress His daughters. IT IS WRITTEN in 3 John 2 that it is God's will for me to prosper and be in health even as my soul prospers. I am Abraham's seed, and the barak blessing includes 'the Lord will take away from you all sickness' (Deuteronomy 7:15). I receive pain relief through medication, therapy, and supernatural touch without guilt. My Father's will is abundance, not arthritis.
Your Father is running toward you with relief in His hands, grieved that religion has made you endure pain thinking it pleases Him. He's not withholding healing to teach you—He sent Jesus to destroy every work of the devil, and pain is the enemy's work, not His curriculum.