There’s power in pain. No one likes pain and no one invites pain but know this, God can use pain.
Pain makes people dig deeper into promises of God and their own future. Thank God for success, but the reality is that success will never make you dig deeper. Popularity and happiness don’t make you dig deeper either.
Pain is a part of every human being's life. God’s answer to pain, loss, tears, hunger and devastation is restoration. In 2 Kings 3:15, God’s people were told to dig ditches. Elisha told them there would be no wind or rain but that they would see the ditches filled with water so the people and cattle could drink. As people were faithful and dug ditches, they found water. The water was already there but they had to dig for it. You have to dig for the promise and blessing.
Pain may be physical or emotional, even spiritual. It comes in every way and it is a part of our world. After this world passes away, Revelation 21:4 shows us there will be no more pain. But pain is a part of this life. Ask what God wants to do with it. You can embrace or reject it, but in God, your pain is not wasted.
With pain, we are moved to dig a little deeper, God shows up and pain becomes power. The pain of the cross became the power of the resurrection. Let’s not just dig a hole. Let’s dig a well. Your pain has power. Have you heard the quote: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain.”? You get more from His Word when you are in pain than you ever would in any other season. You appreciate certain scriptures normally, but in pain you find the Word speaking right into your circumstance. The Word comes alive when you are desperate for answers.
In Ps 119:49-50, King David writes, “Remember the word to Your servant, Upon which You have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life.” He’s saying “Your word has been life in my affliction and pain.”
Pain is not for destruction but to build you up, to develop you. I hate pain. But God has used pain to give me more humility, compassion, and dependence on Him than ever before. These are each a fruit of pain. In Australia, I watched professional tennis players at a tournament in January. It was so hot - over 100 degrees in the stadium and the court temperature was even higher. It was controversial that the game was not stopped. Those players played in pain, losing toenails and more. They played during the pain, and they played after the pain until there was a winner. Don’t give up. Even though there is pain, keep on going. Keep going in pain, through the pain (having done all, stand) and after the pain.
When you lift weights, you do it to gain strength. The more you lift, the more you can carry. We get strength from the weight of pain. You can lift more as you lift more. Pain will not cause you to break down. It will cause you to break records. It determines your potential for growth.
In pain, it’s hard to see it, but God’s got more for you. Are you in leadership? Leadership is not just a fun ride in leading people. It’s brutal. Leadership is known as “bleedership”. God will use pain to develop more in you because He has more for you. Go to God to relieve your pain. I love miracles and healing. They are part of our lives. But don’t underestimate how God can use pain.
Embrace pain. Paul suffered from nakedness, peril and sword repeatedly. He had problems from robbers and from countrymen. He suffered from a thorn in the flesh. This was not just a prickle or sting. It’s described as a boundary peg or stake. He cried out to God, but ultimately he embraced it. Paul knew God was working through the pain, not in a pitiful way, feeling sorry for himself. He was used greatly to write most of the NT and planted most of the NT church. He had incredible revelation. He could’ve been horribly proud. But he was humbled by the thorn in the flesh. We don’t know what his thorn in the flesh was but we do know that his pain was not wasted. Paul saw it as a gift from God. He didn’t run from it but ministered through it.
David’s source of pain was a human - King Saul. Saul was a negative mentor showing David what not to do and how not to live. David grew from it. It was painful, but he learned from it. He understood; (Ps 119:67) “Before I went astray, I was afflicted. But now I keep your word. Four verses later in Ps 119:71 he was resolved, “It is good I’ve been afflicted that I may learn your statutes.” Often after pain, we are better from it. We can carry more because of it. We are no longer a spiritual weakling. Dig deep and don’t underestimate what God can do.
In pain, God never leaves you or forsakes you. He is there all the time. You can choose to be better because of it or you can be bitter. Be aware. Unforgiveness can creep up on you. God has made me more qualified to speak on pain than I was before. All the things I’ve been through are making me a better person. God is making you a better person.
Consider Job. He lost everything - health, lifestyle, business, children. There’s a picture of Job scratching sores with pottery trying to get relief. What we don’t see is brokenness on the inside. Job 13:15 shows him digging deeper, declaring “Though he slay me, yet I will trust him.” He scratched the surface but he dug deep in the Word. In Job 19, in the midst of the most unbelievable pain, Job cries “I know my redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth.”
Pain is never wasted if we commit it to God. Self-pity never builds anything. If you have a pity party, only one guest will show up - the devil. Ask God to use your pain for His glory. God’s got more for you.
I have one last perspective for you. Imagine a man gets robbed. A man in a mask with a knife cuts him and wants his money. He calls for help and an ambulance takes him to a man, in a mask, with a knife, that cuts him…. and wants his money. One is taking from the man. One is healing the man. Sometimes we’re cut and we have to decide how we are going to respond to it. God is your healer. Commit your pain to Him.
