I'm unsure what you're going through, but I feel compelled by the Spirit of God to write this post in order to say to you today: God cares about the pain you are enduring right now.
Regardless if you can sense His abiding presence with you or not, He's right by your side. No mess has the power to pull you from His grip—even if, God forbid, you’re the one trying with all your might to flee from Him. His powerful right hand of authoritative love has ahold of you, and He loves you too much to let you go. The thing is, and sometimes it’s maddening, our Lord is faithful to His own even when His own aren't faithful back. As the Psalmist David so beautifully scripted,
“Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me and the night shall be [the only] light about me, even the darkness hides nothing from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You” (Psalm 139:7-13).
Dear One, your God surely did call you forth to life; He knit you together in your mother’s womb, and He has a mighty, mighty plan for your life. What you can't see right now is this: If you will humbly surrender your pain to the One who promises to redeem it, He will use it for a greater good. He always does. He cannot help Himself. He’s good like that. And you can know that I’m not just speaking from my own experience—no, no. I’m speaking from the Scriptures where God Himself inspired these words:
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28).
This world is a disorienting, confusing and painful place sometimes—I know. But there is so much beauty, too. The thing is, hardships often overshadow the beauty by clouding our vision while fueling hellacious oppression. However, this you can know, this you can cling to: Jesus has overcome and so can you!
If you'll allow me the room to speak openly and honestly to your hurt and pain, I bid you not to harden your heart any longer or rebel against His kindness to you. Sometimes our pain is the exact ingredient our Lord plans to use for our greatest good and other's comfort and help. I've been where you are in brokenness. Maybe not your same situation but certainly a similar kind of misery.
What I’ve learned from my own seasons of brokenness is part of growing up into our faith is recognizing that our Father loves us too much to allow us to stay spoiled spiritual infants. He has a wonderful and mind-blowing purpose in mind for us to fulfill, and our purpose requires us to shed our fleshly childish ways. We have some God appointed work to do and some needly people to help.
Furthermore, even Jesus learned obedience by what He suffered. Hebrews 5:8 says so: “Even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.”
So, how much more us?
Interestingly, Scripture also reveals that before Jesus fulfilled His ministry He had to go through the awful madness of temptation in the desert. The madness of emptiness. The madness of hunger. Yet, His Father never left His side. No, in all of Jesus' badgering and slamming against a desert wall, His Father was right there with Him—even in Him.
Child of God, He’s in you as well.
Listen, your God is with you in your fear. Your God is with you in your suffering. Your God is with you in your addiction. Your God is with you in your depression. Your God is with you in your troubled marriage. Your God is with you in your _____________.
Can I encourage you to bow down and to let your Savior save?
Can I talk you out of holding onto your pain?
Can I talk you into opening up your hands by allowing your Daddy-God to have it?
All of it…
Every. Last. Bit. Of. It.
Can I encourage you not to hold onto your pain like a proud victim?
Listen, “There will always be someone willing to hurt you, put you down, gossip about you, belittle your accomplishments and judge your soul. It is a fact that we all must face. However, if you realize that God is a best friend that stands beside you when others cast stones you will never be afraid, never feel worthless and never feel alone.” What we must realize is similar to what Shannon L. Alder realized.
“The chains that keep you bound to the past are not the actions of another person. They are your own anger, stubbornness, lack of compassion, jealousy and blaming others for your choices. It is not other people that keep you trapped; it is the entitled role of victim that you enjoy wearing. There is a familiarness to pain that you enjoy because you get a payoff from it. When you figure out what that payoff is then you will finally be on the road to freedom.”
While I do believe chains from our past can most definitely be from the actions of others, I also believe there is a measure of truth here as well. We can take responsibility for our responses and, in doing so, we can also cry out to God to remove our every last chain. Come on now—why hang on to it? Let's let it go.
That's my prayer for you right this second.
The One who desires to take you into His arms awaits your sincere surrender.
Why wait? What's holding you back?
You'll never be sorry for letting Jesus have His way. No, not ever.
In the midst of all the voices—Can you hear Him?
He's calling you today, right now.
There's no shame in His presence. He wants you home. He's happy to take your tearstained face into His loving hands. Let Him love you. He wants to so badly.
