Have you ever walked through a situation in life that left you wondering why God would allow you to experience the hurt, pain, or even discouragement that resulted? The no doubt that some challenges in life are the result of poor choices, but the reality is that we walk through hardships and experience pain.
Jesus told us pain and suffering would be part of our lives. In John 16:33 Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Jesus didn’t simply say we will have trials and sorrow and then leaves it to us to figure out. Instead, He promises peace and reminds us that He has overcome the world, meaning our hardships are not without purpose.
Paul had a desire to reach gentiles in Rome, but his dialogue throughout the letter challenges us to understand our shared identity in Jesus. Paul wrote in Romans 8:1, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (We are all called)
Our pains and suffering have a purpose.
Paul cheated his words carefully, and notice he writes we know. Paul underwent beatings, shipwrecks, and multiple imprisonments. Yet, he still recognized something is absolutely essential for us to remember as believers – our pain is not meaningless but has a purpose. And not just some situations, he writes all things.
Every person God use mightily throughout scripture, went through seasons of hardship. Moses had to plea his family who wanted to kill him. Elijah had people seeking his death, Queen Esther risked her life in order to save the Jewish people, Jesus’s disciples were all martyred for their commitment Him and Our Savior was beaten to the point he could not be recognized and killed for us.
Yet scripture, repeatedly speaks to how our suffering never concludes without God’s power, working through it supernaturally.
Our pain and suffering often sets us up to see God’s supernatural works in our lives.
Depending on our perspective on this we can usually see God’s Work in our lives. For example if we constantly have a negative attitude or expect the worst in every situation we don’t tend to see any good in our lives. They say hindsight is 20-20, we can usually look back on the meaning, situation, or decision with the ability to understand, evaluate, and see the blessings even in times of struggle.
Our suffering never concludes without God’s power working through it supernaturally.
While there is nothing that can prepare us for disappointing news, if we have faith God can see us through. And He usually teaches us some things that help us grow even stronger in our relationship with Him.
No matter what we are walking through today, or what challenges are ahead, we can take heed that God is walking with us.
We can bring our pain and suffering to God. Don’t try to hide pain and suffering from Him. When we run from God in challenging seasons all we are left with is our own limited abilities to cope with what were going through.
God invites us to draw near to Him that we might experience His peace, healing, and closeness. Psalm 34:18 tells us “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted, He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”
The Bible never instructs us to suppress our pain, but shows us where to direct it.
God desires to conduct divine surgery on our souls, which can lead to supernatural healing no matter how difficult our challenges are.
How we respond to pain and suffering is critical to how we process what’s happening around us, and how healing takes place. Like physical healing, if we treat it with the wrong medicine, not only will our sickness continue, but it could get worse.
If we fill our minds with the wrong thoughts: “God is mad at me,” God must hate me,” “Worse things are going to happen,” etc…we will struggle to experience the peace of God that He promises to us. Philippians 4:7 tells us, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Messiah Yeshua.”
If you’re stuck in the negative thought loop, I won’t tell you it will be easy to change your thought patterns, it will take awhile, but you can do it with God’s help. And it will be worth it.
Something powerful happens when we actively choose to worship God through our suffering. We aren’t denying reality, we are simply redirecting our thoughts from the negative to the positive.
Worship changes our perspective. Worship speaks about where our confidence and hope reside. Worship redirects our thinking and places the results in His hands.
We have to believe that God will turn our sorrows into great joy. God uses our pain for our good. Meaning that our greatest sorrows can be turned into great joy. All God asks for is faith in Him.
From Pity to Praise 