Born Free: 16 Principles to Help You Be FreeSample

Principle 3: Sickness Comes from Trying to Avoid Pain

Our third power principle is this: Almost all emotional and spiritual sickness comes from an inappropriate effort to avoid pain. No one could accuse Jesus of promising his followers a rose garden: “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’” (Mark 8:34-37). In fact, rose gardens are pretty rare in the Bible: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:5-6). “We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

To put it another say, “No pain, no gain.” In the early years of plastic surgery, it was believed that by using an anesthetic you would hurt the results of the surgery. So one was faced with a decision: Suffer and become beautiful; or avoid suffering and remain ugly. There is pain involved in breaking out of prison.

To be quite honest, if you are free, not everyone will like you. If you are free, you will sometimes feel insecure. If you say no, you will sometimes feel guilty. If you are your own person, bowing your heard before none but God, you are going to be rejected by a lot of authority figures. One of the problems with most of us is that we have been in prison for so long that prison begins to seem normal. When you first start walking in the light, it hurts your eyes. There will be a tendency to think, when your eyes hurt, that you must be doing it wrong. No, no, no! The darkness of the prison won’t hurt your eyes, but you can’t see anything, either!