Purpose in Pain

The truth is, and I absolutely love this little gem of wisdom

Pain doesn't always happen on purpose BUT God can find Purpose in Your Pain.

God doesn't want to see His children hurt and He certainly doesn't hurt His children, even though the world and the Devil love us to think that.

But, Let's Get Real First. We Are Broken.

We are broken because we live in a sinful world. But by God's grace, we may be broken but, we aren't defeated! We all have messy areas of our lives we don't like or don't want anyone to know about. Things that can make us feel shame and guilt or circumstances that make us too comfortable or complacent.

Shame, guilt and indifference are not from God, remember that. 

Frequently, our comfort zones, our struggles, or the lies we tell ourselves or Satan whispers to us, are the things that bring on the temptations. Scars and pain aren't just physical. They are mental, emotional and spiritual. They can be unbearable and unrelenting.

Pain leads us into all kinds of temptations and destruction because we are seeking for control and to fill something which is lacking or out of our control. Pain can blind you to truth and shut out all hope. Pain left unresolved, unaddressed, unconfessed, or unforgiven, can lead to a dark black hole where anger, bitterness, shame and hopelessness can swallow you whole and bury you deep. I know.

The Devil LOVES pain and he also LOVES making us comfortable because he knows what it does to God's children. It turns them away from their Father. It stops us from relying on and worshiping our Creator, which is what we are made to do. The Devil calls you by your sin and tempts you to stay in your comfort. He HATES God's children and he wants you defeated and out of the way.

Here’s the tricky, incredibly frustrating and seemingly impossible truth when you feel like your pain and scars define you, are consuming you, are unbearable or you're feeling alone, too comfortable, inadequate and defeated.

You Have a Choice.

You have a choice to sit in your pain, sit in your comfort, sit in your 'safety', and sit in your sin. You can choose to be consumed by it, let your scars define you and focus ONLY on your pain, comfort, failure or difficult circumstances. You have a choice to stay down in the dark, black, 'safe' hole OR you have a choice to hand over your life, comfort, pain, doubt and sin to God and seek help, understanding, forgiveness, healing, and be vulnerable and challenged to grow. If you hand it all over to God, you can declare His TRUTH in your life that He is enough and He will sustain you in all things, all circumstances, at all times. He can take your hurt, your challenges, your weakness and your faithful obedience and use it for an incredible purpose. But you have to let Him. ​Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can power through pain and the mess of sin with some grit and spit and just somehow be OK because God is good, forget about it, get over it and let's move on with it. I've experienced enough excruciating pain and made enough mistakes in my life to know that's not true.

Pretending you're just fine or hiding sin later leads to more pain and destruction. ANYBODY can pretend for awhile. 

But, eventually, you can't keep up the facade and your self sufficient strength for 'being OK' or 'appearing holy' runs out. You can't act your way out of pain and unresolved sin. I've tried. I still struggle with this.​

Pain, Forgiveness, Healing & Restoration is a Process.

It can be a long, hard, frustrating, terrifying, exhausting process. But when we hand over our sin, scars and pain to God, when we worship Him through it, He will take your hurt and allow the scars to strengthen you, grow you and reveal incredible purpose from the mess that He will bless. You will be used for His glory and purpose in the most unlikely circumstances and you will come out clean, holy and free on the other side. Your relationship with Him is restored.

What an incredible testimony our battle scars, fear, challenges, pain and brokenness can bring when we give it back to Him to do with as He wills! How crazy is it that God can take our mess and shove holiness out the other side! What an incredible testimony when we choose to focus on our reasons and The Reason to FIGHT instead of fold.