Have you ever asked God to take away your pain?
Have you ever been in a season where God doesn’t seem to hear your prayers?
Have you ever lost hope?
Have you ever been unable to understand why God allows good people to suffer gruesome things?
When my dad died, as a young child I found myself asking a lot of these questions.
Sometimes I asked all night. Sometimes I asked until it hurt too much to ask again. Sometimes I just cried.
Walking In The Woods
When you walk through the deep woods for the first time, it’s much different than the concrete jungle most of us grew up around. Twigs, bushes, and branches interrupt your every step.
To avoid falling and making a fool of yourself, you have to keep your eyes close to your feet.
So it was more than 200 years ago. In fact, a major reason America was able to separate from the British homeland in the Revolutionary War was built upon this circumstance.
Most British soldiers, who grew up in urban settings, found themselves stumbling and fumbling through the woods any time they needed to travel. American soldiers, experts of the unknown frontier, could spot a red coat a mile away in the wilderness. Often, American soldiers caught their British foes looking down trying to find a good footing.
American soldiers didn’t win often in an open field, but they found if they could get the British off the beaten path, they had them dead to rights, as it is said.
American soldiers weren’t any better than the British army, they were simply able to see the enemy first. American soldiers had the wisdom and the skillset of being able to look beyond their own two feet.
Fixing Our Gaze
When we walk through pain, we often find ourselves as the British novice. We only focus on what’s immediately in front of us.
If we want to overcome our fears, our doubts, even our pain, we need to develop the mindset of looking ahead.
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” – 2 Corinthians 4:17&18 NLT
When we find the truth behind what God says about suffering through Scripture, we are able to see beyond our circumstances.
Faith is seeing beyond our present troubles(Hebrews 11:1).
Faith is fixing our gaze on the goodness of God no matter what seems to be in front of us.
My Experience
When my dad died, I couldn’t see beyond my current circumstances. All I could see was grief. Then, sometime after I lost the courage to ask God all the questions I so desperately wanted to know I felt God speak into the silence.
When I was very young and in the midst of dealing with the grief of losing my dad, I heard a thought that clearly wasn’t my own say to me: “When you’re older, life won’t be this traumatic, life won’t be like this at all.”
More than what I heard, I felt an immense sense of hope and peace immediately overcome me. The moment was so significant the memory still sticks with me today. Now I know that this would be the first time the Holy Spirit spoke into my life.
Although the moment was brief, I held on to the hope I received for much of my childhood.
Despite trial, struggle, and many tears, I wouldn’t ponder thoughts of suicide or self-harm like many of my classmates around me.
Instead of listening to self-defeating thoughts, I chose to believe in the Voice that spoke to me.
God, like the truly good Father that He is, simply gave me a future to look ahead to.
When you find yourself unable to see a way through or a way out of your current circumstances, I encourage you to see beyond what is here and now.
See the day when Jesus comes back.
See the day He wipes away every tear (Revelation 21:4).
See the day He exchanges your suffering for His joy (Isaiah 61:7).
Looking Back
Looking back at my childhood, I wouldn’t wish what I experienced on my worst enemy.
I also wouldn’t exchange my experiences for the rest of the world.
My dad dying when I was a child doesn’t define who I am, but by God’s grace, I allowed Him to refine who I am through the pain.
To answer the questions I posed in the beginning, God allows us to suffer so that we might share in God’s holiness.
“He(meaning God) disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” – Hebrews 12:10b (parenthesis added)
I’m not saying I’m someone “better” because of what I went through, but somehow God is using what meant to harm me for His good (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28).
Somehow, looking back I can see how God is using my brokenness and making something beautiful.
Action Step
What pain, trial, or suffering have you experienced that you need to reconcile with God? Is there something in your past you need to make peace with God about?
What temporary obstacles have you been focused on that have been taking your gaze off of God’s promises to you? Which is bigger in your mind, the obstacles you face or the God you call King?
If you are in a season of struggle, grief, or pain, how are you going to set your focus beyond what you are currently experiencing?
What Scriptural promise will you hold onto when times get tough?
If you are struggling to see the good in what God is taking you through, what lessons is God teaching you in this season of your life?
If you are in a season of praise, how will you prepare your mind, your heart, and your soul so that you never stumble when times get tough?
After all is said and done, may praise go to the God who heals our pain.
May praise go to the King who sends us hope.
Let us remember, in every circumstance we find ourselves, God is walking alongside our every tear.
