In my last blog, we explored the truth that as believers, we will surely experience suffering and many trials. I pray you took the time to stand firm on those declarations and are beginning to look at your pain through a new lens, a lens of truth, grace and love.
Today I want to share another powerful truth with you:
When you understand pain has a purpose, it loses its power over you!
This is exactly what has transpired in my own life. Growing up, I experienced my share of pain and suffering. I learned to bottle up my pain and hide it behind fear. It altered my life to the point I didn’t even know who I was. Behind my calm and quiet demeanor, I was highly anxious, irritable, and angry inside. I reacted out of emotion to the slightest hurts and unmet expectations. When I dedicated my life to Christ in college, He began to transform me. I started to discover who I was created to be. This is an ever evolving process in my life, and I grow more with each new struggle. Over time, I have learned to accept rejection from others (even those closest to me) because of my faith, though it has not been easy. My pain has new purpose and has become a stepping stone for my faith instead of a stronghold.
Over the past year I have been challenged, pruned and refined to a level I didn’t even know was possible. It was through this process that I finally began to truly understand God’s plan for redeeming the pain we experience in this fallen world. I have discovered within myself a deeper capacity for grace and mercy than I ever could have imagined.
Luke 23:34 took on a whole new meaning for me:
While they were nailing Jesus to the cross, he prayed over and over, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” The soldiers, after they crucified him, gambled over his clothing. (TPT)
In the midst of my greatest trials and tribulations, I have found myself pouring my heart out in prayer to God for my accusers. I have spent hours upon hours praying for their souls, longing from the depths of my being for them to be set free from the darkness that had taken root in their hearts and was working to destroy their lives.
In those moments, God began to show me the work He was doing in me as well. I was no longer concerned about what others thought of me or how their choices were impacting my own life, but my focus was completely on how to help them in the midst of their own pain. My heart broke for them. I saw them not as enemies, but as beloved children of God, children who were suffering and unwittingly causing others to suffer alongside them.
Perhaps for the first time in my life, I truly began to understand the depths of God’s love for me, and for those who were hurting. I realized how agonizing it must be for God to watch as each of His children makes decisions that bring unnecessary pain and suffering into our own lives. I realized what it is to desire so deeply to rescue them from themselves, all the while knowing they have been given the right to choose their own path.
My heart began to break for the heartache I had caused God in my own life, and my mourning turned to joy as the Lord began to reveal a deeper revelation of the power of His love and promises for my life and for the lives of others who choose to receive it.
This revelation brings a newfound understanding of my own struggles. God is refining me and has opened new doors in my heart to highlight my brokenness beneath the weight of His Glory. I yearn to die more to myself each day to experience the fullness of life Christ has for me.
I have found the more I focus on myself in the midst of trials and tribulations instead of on others, the greater capacity God has to move in my life and perform the miraculous. The enemy of our souls wants us to look at others and stir up strife instead of running our own race and allowing the transformative power of Christ to work mightily through us.
My prayer for you, my friend, is that you too will allow the Lord to penetrate the depths of your despair, and shine His glorious light in and through you as well. May your heart be softened so you may be molded into the perfect creation He has designed you to be. May you truly and completely forgive those who have hurt you that you may rise from the ashes as a new creation; that God’s strength may be perfected in your weakness.
And most importantly, may you look upon all those who hurt you with eyes of mercy, grace and forgiveness. Don’t give up on them. Don’t cast them aside. Don’t hurt them back. Don’t close yourself off. Love. Forgive. Pray. And live each new day with purpose.
God bless you. Thank you for allowing me to share my heart with you. I will leave you with more of God’s Truth to stand on, and new declarations to wield in your battle for freedom and faith!
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [healing their pain and comforting their sorrow]. – Psalm 147:3 AMP
God is healing my pain and comforting me in my sorrow!
And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose. – Romans 8:28 AMP
God is deeply concerned for me and is already working this out for my good!
Tolerate the weaknesses of those in the family of faith, forgiving one another in the same way you have been graciously forgiven by Jesus Christ. If you find fault with someone, release this same gift of forgiveness to them. – Colossians 3:13 TPT
I have been forgiven much and I choose to forgive much!
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor [perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding] and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice [all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence]. Be kind and helpful to one another, tender-hearted [compassionate, understanding], forgiving one another [readily and freely], just as God in Christ also forgave you. – Ephesians 4:31-32 AMP
I will not give the enemy access to my heart. Today I choose to be compassionate and understanding toward ______. I choose to forgive them as you have forgiven me!
I will be kind and helpful, compassionate and understanding to everyone I encounter!
Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening]. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 AMP
I will choose love today!
I will bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things!
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Blessings,
