Dr. Brand said, “One of the great things about pain is that it so often brings us back to God.” Why is pain sometimes necessary in your life for that spiritual return to occur?

I think without pain, we would just continue on and feel like we don’t need to rely on God, or in the case of sin, not correct our behavior.

I believe sometime pain has to brought in our lives to open our eyes that we are not alone and do not have control over everything. It opens us back up to see that there is a higher power in life and often helps us to regain our relationship with God to ease that pain knowing that our God is with us.

Thinking about the last lesson (affliction and salvation) I say, if there is no affliction in my life, I won’t think about salvation. Therefore, I won’t think about Jesus. My afflictions make me think that I need Jesus. I cannot make it on my own.

We need to be reminded the ultimately God is the only one in control.

Like a refiners fire sometimes we need that pain to refine our souls and to set us back on the righteous path.

When things are going smoothly we feel like we are in control. We do. Ot feel like we need God. When we are suffering we realize that we are not in control. We need God to give us strength. We want God to work things out.

Pain takes us to the bottom of the pit. The only way our is with something bigger than ourselves. God is the only way to get out of the pit. Pain is the reminder that we can’t do things on our own, that we need God. Pain is necessary to help up remember we are not alone and have help.