Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “Why Do Pain and Sadness Come to Us?” When we look into the sadness and suffering of the Israelites who came out of Egypt after 430 years of slavery there, we can receive huge grace of God from them. The Israelites who left Egypt, following the guidance of Moses who was the servant of God, faced great danger. There was a sea in the front, and the army of Egypt was chasing after them. They faced a dilemma. In the same way, for the past one year, we faced various hardships in life. We couldn’t move forward nor turn around but were in pain constantly. Why did God allow us this hardship? It is because darkness highlights brightness. We experience brightness much better after we stay in darkness for a while, Nowadays we rarely see the Milky Way in the city’s polluted skies or even that of the country. Yet, in my childhood, the Milky Way looked like sprinkled gold dust in the night sky. However, I scarcely see it now. It is due to the city’s polluted air but also the city’s brilliant light at night. The Milky Way that shines from the universe to the earth is swallowed by dazzling city lights at night. Like darkness in the night sky highlights brilliant stars, we can distinguish light in the dark village. Those who never experience darkness cannot know the importance of light. Since God knows that suffering and difficulties reveal peace and joy, He allows us to go through suffering and difficulties in our lives. After those hardships, we can feel peace and joy much stronger and deeper. Moses and the Israelites had to live a rough life in the desert for forty years until they entered the promised land of Canaan. As they overcame the rough and hard life in the wilderness, they came to know God and His miracles and feel the work of God. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 says, “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” God made the Israelites to pass through various sufferings and trials in the wilderness in order for them to know how great God’s help is! The Israelites faced a crisis right after they left Egypt. They might have asked themselves that why they had to face such a trial when they left Egypt according to God’s will. In Exodus 14:12, the Israelites complaint to Moses, saying, “Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'?” They didn’t believe in God who guided them, but said that living in Egypt while serving Egyptians would be much better than to die in the wilderness. They were full of such unbelief that it would be impossible for them to follow God to pass through the desert to enter the land flowing with milk and honey. It was because their hearts were already full of distrust. They didn’t know that God exists and that He would perform signs and wonders for them. So God let them go through the sea on dry ground and drowned the Egyptian army. When the Red Sea was divided and God let the Egyptian army follow into the sea and made the water flow again over them to destroy them completely, the Israelites saw this and then their distrust was gone and their faith began to revive while they exclaimed, “Wow, God is really alive! Unless He is alive, this kind of thing can’t happen!” Exodus 14:31 says, “And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” Furthermore, through this incident, the Egyptians also came to believe in God. Pain has God’s good will in it. God delivers us from pain and through this experience strengthens our faith much more. In our life of faith, those who have never experienced any difficulties but only peaceful times will lose their faith when suffering comes to them. However, those who have prayed to God and received answers from Him in very harsh living conditions won’t be shaken in their faith. Even in hardships, they kneel down before God and pray until God answers their prayer! They won’t be shaken or fall down at all. Trees growing in a barren field put their roots deep down into the ground to survive. Therefore, they wouldn’t fall down against any strong wind. Like those trees plant their roots deep down into a barren field, when our life pass through pain and sadness, our roots of life will put into ground much deeper than before. God sometimes lets us pass through the wilderness in life. After we overcome trials and suffering, God is waiting for us while preparing a life of peace and joy. When we pass through suffering, we can enjoy joy and delight; when we expect only joy and delight, trials never leave us alone. More than often, we lament before God asking why we should suffer from darkness in life. However, in order for us to live a new life, God lets us suffer from harsh pain and suffering. When we overcome those difficulties, joy and delight are waiting for us. Who has ever experienced more harsh and painful suffering than Jesus in the world? When we accept Jesus as Savior, we invite the Son of God who suffered infinite pain in our place into our hearts. Therefore, we can overcome any difficulty with the power of Jesus and be blessed before God. Just as when winter passes and the whole world changes beautifully by being filled with vitality when spring comes, if we received the spirit of life of Jesus, vitality will overflow in our life. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’" While we lived a poor, naked, and painful life, as soon as we meet Jesus, He already was cursed for us and suffered on the cross to settle all our curses so vitality will overflow from Him into us. When we accept Jesus and pray to Him and live a faithful life of faith, vitality will flow from Him abundantly. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Jesus settled our poverty-stricken, poorly clad, starving, and difficult lives and any curses in life on the cross. And He also carried our sickness and painful diseases and filth by His shedding blood and destroyed them all. Thus when we invite Jesus Christ, we unite with Him as one. Jesus’ death becomes my death, Jesus’ resurrection becomes my resurrection, Jesus’ ascension becomes my ascension, and Jesus’ heaven my heaven. In this way, Christ and we become one. 2 Corinthians 4:10 says, “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” Jesus doesn’t call us to be part of religion, but wants to call us to share His life with us. When we invite Jesus Christ and give Him praises and prayer, the life force within Him will flow into us. Jesus’ life becomes our life. And we should dream about what Jesus gives us from His earthly life. In our hearts, we should think and dream that Jesus’ righteousness will be changed into our righteousness, Jesus’ holiness our holiness, Jesus’ health our health, Jesus’ blessing our blessing, Jesus’ resurrection and ascension our resurrection and ascension. Philippians 2:13 says, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” We should accept this kind of feature of Jesus with faith. Mark 11:22-24 says, "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” Our faith isn’t an ordinary faith. Actually if we command with this faith, it will come true. When we pray, it will come to pass. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Even if we suffer from trials and tribulations in life, when we pray to God and order according to that prayer, we should believe that God will work for us. We must recognize that this living work of God will manifest in our lives. Psalm 21:2 says, “You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah” We must not deny with our mouths. We’d better confess with our mouths positively such as, “God gives me joy.” Then He will give us real joy. If we confess, “God gives me delight,” He will surely give us delight. If we say, “God gives me health,” we will become healthy. When we confess what we want with our mouths, God will work for us according to our creative declaration. We can truly meet God if we enter into the fourth dimensional world from the third dimensional world. Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” It is good to be afflicted. This illustrates one story; a certain man came to a potter. When he went to the place where the potter made various vessels, he found there were the same kinds of flower pots, but some of them were so brilliant while others seemed to be dull luster and dark and a bad quality. He asked him why and the potter answered that the brilliant flower pots with a good quality passed through a burning furnace. As they were baked within the furnace, they had this brilliance, but other flower pots looked dull and dark because they didn’t go into the furnace. God considers us as these magnificent vessels so He makes us pass through the burning trials to make us a brilliant believer. Without any burning trials, there is no brilliant joy of heaven to us. We can’t be beautiful without trials. Like pottery should pass through fire to become beautiful one, we will have become brilliant and beautiful when we pass through pain and sadness. Therefore, the Psalmist confessed this way. Psalm 119:71 says, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” Even if suffering and hardships may come to us, as long as God is with us, they would rather become an opportunity. Therefore, no matter whatever situation we many confront, we should believe in our good God and have a positive thinking. We ought to think that God will finally do good to us so that we can understand the difference between light and darkness. Isaiah 57:19 says, “creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel.” God created praise on the lips of the mourners. When we believe in God and confess Him with our mouths, our almighty God will create praise on our lips to manifest in our lives. Every day we plant seed, namely our spoken word in the field of life. When we plant positive words, we will harvest positive fruit while we will get only negative fruit if we plant negative words. When we make the Holy Spirit dwell in our heads and fill it with the word of God every day, that word of God will become seed and we will scatter it and get its fruit. You shouldn’t make the devil dwell in your heads and minds; if he brings about negative thinking to you, you should immediately resist it, saying, “In the name of Jesus, I command you, ‘Go away! Go away!’” Jesus promised that we would cast out the devil in His name. The devil will be cast out. Even if he may fly over our heads, he never dwell on them. As all of us accept the pain of Jesus Christ into our hearts, I pray that Jesus’ pain will be our pain, Jesus’ life will be our life so we can live with joy and delight.