DAILY DEVOTIONAL – SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 The Megaphone to a Suffering World By Gary Wilkerson

I've never met somebody who is content their whole life. The ‘happy pagan,’ people who claim to be entirely satisfied without God or religion, tend to think, “Things are working well in my life, so I’m happy.” The problem is that this is a superficial happiness because it’s based entirely on circumstances. This kind of happiness will never last long and can’t endure any kind of suffering. As for believers, we will always get this holy dissatisfaction, if we’re actively seeking the Lord. I believe that this is a gift from the Holy Spirit. My grandfather, who was a pastor and minister, called this the ‘Holy Ghost miserables.’ He would actually pray for his family members and his children, if they got to the place of being so content in life that they felt like they didn’t need God, that they would get miserable because that tends to be when we look for God. Now some people say, “Well then, isn't God just a crutch? Isn't he just for people who are weak and hurting?” Everybody's weak and hurting. Refusing to face that fact is the epitome of arrogance. Everyone is weak in some area. Everyone has gone through pain at some point in their life. Everyone has endured sorrow over a loss. There are people listening right now who are facing the most difficult season of their life, and they may be asking, “Oh, God, why? Why am I going through this? Am I cursed? Why aren't I being blessed like others?” Well, maybe there's a blessing in disguise in that pain. C. S. Lewis wrote, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” God calls to us through our pains, saying, “Come deeper into your knowledge of me. Draw closer to me. Learn to depend on me entirely.” In times of pain and difficulty, I find myself becoming hungry for more of Jesus. One of the things I'm also learning through faithfully seeking God in the midst of suffering is how to continue wanting God when things are going well too. I still want to know him more when everything seems to be falling in place. That’s where we truly find joy unspeakable.