How To Turn Your Pain Into Power

Just about everyone has been through something painful in their lives. If you haven’t you probably will. I’m not saying that to bring you down and it certainly is not my wish for you. Fact is we are all born with an expiration date and we are born into a body subject to breaking down, aging, aches and pains. Jobs and careers come and go. Cars and houses and anything created by humans will eventually break down, fail or need repair. Relationships with people are challenging, to say the least. Just look at marriages for an example that fail. Two people that were so in love can quickly turn into two people who hate each other. We don’t think about it though till we actually go through something that gets our attention. Particularly when we are young and blessed enough to be healthy we think we are invincible, unbreakable and unstoppable.  Socrates said ‘Youth is wasted on the young.’ That is funny but also painfully true. Wouldn’t it be great to be young after we were smarter and knew what we know now? At the time I am writing this I am 69 years old. I have been through some terrible things in my first marriage. I was a single parent for many years. I have had cancer and so has my wife. Thank God we got through cancer but the effects of chemo on my body has me weak physically in many ways. Pain seems to be inevitable especially as one gets older. This article isn’t meant to be negative. In fact, it is just the opposite. This writing is meant to come alongside you and give you hope and strength to get through whatever it is you are going through. And as the writer I have to be honest, these are words I need to hear. I struggle like anyone else and there are days I don’t manage my pain and suffering very well. And looking back at how I have handled some of the things I have been through I could have handled many things I have been through better than I did. The way I have dealt with the hard knocks of life have ranged from courageous to thumb-sucking weakling. I’m not proud of how I have handled and reacted to all the things I have went through in life but I am a living testimony that God is faithful and is with us through it all and can be trusted.

Pain and suffering will transform us like nothing else can. It is up to us whether it transforms us into a thumb-sucking weakling or a courageous overcomer and conqueror, but have no doubt it will change you one way or another depending on how you deal with it. Pain and suffering reveals hidden strength as well as hidden weakness. It ‘forces’ us to look into a mirror that most of time we don’t want to look into. It is really up to us what we do with what we see.  James 1:22-25 addresses this :

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

Would you go to a mirror and see dirt on your face and not do anything about it? It is possible to ignore it under normal conditions. We can even ignore someone who is trying to tell us we have dirt on our face but that mirror of pain and suffering cannot be ignored. It forces us to do something about whatever it is revealing to you about yourself. It is up to us though whether we let it discover hidden strengths, build faith or take us down. Pain reveals. Just like physical pain reveals something physically wrong with us so does life’s pain and suffering reveal something and then we are invited to do something about it or ignore it. Physical pain might be revealing to us some infection or disease and if we don’t do anything about it to correct it, it could kill us. If I would have ignored my back pain I would be dead rather than writing this. That back pain caused doctors to look deeper and found I had a cancerous tumor on my spine and had spread to other parts of my body already and advanced to stage 4 cancer. Doing something about an injury can be the difference between antibiotics or amputation. It is the same with life’s perils. Will we let life and God reveal something to us that needs attention or will we ignore it and allow it to fester and become harder to correct or even kill us? Perhaps the reason we are suffering is because we are in a bad relationship that God is trying to reveal to us to get out of.  God is not out to condemn us and certainly takes no pleasure in our suffering, he just wants to uncover truths about ourselves and others in our life.

Through it all we have his promise that “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” – Isaiah 43:2

• “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28
• Apostle Paul speaks of a ‘thorn in his flesh’ that God would not deliver him from and God revealed to him that the thorn had a purpose, to keep him humble. He asked God three times to take it from him and his response was“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” – 2 Corinthians 12:9
• God is with us in our darkest hour and that which the enemy meant for evil God wants you to get good out of. He wants to use our pain to accomplish something good in us.
• “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.” – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
• “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18
• “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28
• “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33
• “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” – Psalm 147:3
• “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.” – Isaiah 41:10
• “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” – Psalm 94:19
• “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” – Matthew 5:4
• “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” –Lamentations 3:22-23
• “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him.” – Romans 15:13

Could there be a divine purpose in our pain? God does not afflict us or want us to suffer but he can accomplish a purpose in the pain if we will allow him to. He is like a master potter who takes our lives and puts them on his spinning wheel and molds us and forms us into a vessel that is beautiful and useful. Pain and suffering can strengthen our faith and teach us to persevere. It can show us that we are stronger than we think we are and can endure more than we thought we could. When you are going through a hard time in your life that makes no sense don’t blame God, the devil or even yourself, ask him what you can learn from this situation. Trust him to guide you through it all.

• “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” – Romans 5:3-4
• “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” – James 1:2-4
• “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” – 1 Peter 5:10
• “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” – 2 Corinthians 4:17
• “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:11

I have seen many people who claimed to be Christians give up when something bad happened when in reality that is precisely when we should endure. Every trial and tribulation can make us or break us. God has promised to walk with us through the fires of life and that if we will endure and place our trust in him trusting that God cannot only get us through something but can make us come out stronger on the other side of it. Trials shape our character and prepare us for something greater, but only if we allow it to do so and don’t give up.

• “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” – Romans 8:18
• “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13
• “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” – Hebrews 10:36
• “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” – Philippians 3:10
• “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer… Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.” – Revelation 2:10

It sounds kind of contradictory to say but God can bring healing through our suffering and pain. It makes us yearn for and pray for healing. It increases our faith as we learn to lean upon God. God wants to heal us of more than our physical ailments he wants to heal us from deep-seated emotional and spiritual scars. I have heard more than one story about someone being healed, even physically, because they forgave someone. You need to assess your pain and the reason you are suffering whether it is self-inflicted because you are holding on to hate, bitterness, stress and resentment.

• “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 30:17
• “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.” – James 5:14
• “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” – 1 Peter 2:24
• “He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’” – Mark 5:34
• “My son, pay attention to my words; turn your ear to my sayings. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.” – Proverbs 4:20-22

As brothers and sisters in Christ when we see someone suffering we should take advantage of the opportunity to minister to them. No one should have to suffer alone. That was not the way God created the church. Support and uplift that one in need. It doesn’t always take a lot to make a difference. Cook a meal for someone too sick to cook a meal themselves. Text, e-mail or call someone to encourage them regularly when they are going through something. Even something as simple as a hug goes farther than you think. When I was a single parent someone hugging me was like a lifeline. I drew so much strength from someone’s hug. No act of encouragement is too small. I once heard the story of a farmer who got his tractor stuck in the mud and a city slicker come along and said, ‘I might not can get your tractor out of the mud but I can sit in the mud with you a while.’ The world needs more ‘mud sitters’, people that will just be there for someone in need. Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.” The literal meaning from the original Greek implies someone trying to carry a log and that we should literally pick up one end of a log and help them carry it. It isn’t just about a token ‘God bless you, be at peace, I’m praying for you’, it is about sharing their burden. Yes, real prayer for someone is important but like it is written in James 2:14-16, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?  If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?”

Be vulnerable by being there for someone in need. It is a more powerful witness to the world when the church reaches out to their community and ministers to those in need than all the words preached from the pulpit. I hate it when a church says they are ‘going to win the world for Christ’ and don’t even minister to those in their own neighborhood. People are going to remember who helped them more than who looked down their noses at them or put some lifeless tract in their hands.

• “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:11
• “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” – Hebrews 3:13
• “Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” – Philippians 2:4
• “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” – Colossians 3:13

Here is our hope that God is an anchor to our souls in times of pain. Hope points us to something beyond our circumstances and struggles. It gives us an eternal perspective that we have hope even if we die. Be assured that God has a plan beyond what you are going through. As we hold to the rock that is Christ and trust him and his promises we are equipped to navigate through pain and can have confidence that he will see us through and give us a future filled with joy and purpose in this life and in the life to come.

• “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
• “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” – Romans 12:12
• “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” – Revelation 21:4
• “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.” – Psalm 39:7
• “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” – Romans 15:4

Be assured God is with us in our times of suffering. I know it is hard to see that when we are going through something but if we will trust in him and hold on to him and the promises of his word, reminding ourselves that he will get us through whatever we are going through we will come out stronger. He walks beside us guiding us like a kind shepherd does his sheep in our most challenging moments. By doing so we turn our pain into power, power to get us through and to strengthen others along the way. Pain can transform us into the people we were meant to be. Together we can lean on one another in assurance that suffering is not the end but is but a stepping stone on the higher plan God has for our lives. He is with us every step of the way. Let us encourage one another along the way and keep the faith. Rather than focus on the pain keep your eyes and thoughts focused on the hope that awaits us beyond our trials.