Gram’s heart was broken. When another adult daughter died, she wailed: “What did I do so bad to deserve this?”
It was a body-blow pain.
Explaining your pain
We’ve all hurt. How we explain pain determines much about how well we handle it. We can speak truth to ourselves. Or we can tell ourselves lies.
Here are some choices:
1) My behavior determines whether good or ill happens to me.
Job’s “friends” believed Job’s calamity was caused by Job’s sin.
Job also thought sin caused disaster, but thought he was innocent and couldn’t understand why the Lord allowed it.
Elijah said he’d been zealous for the Lord and couldn’t understand why bad things were happening to him.
2) I sinned and these are natural consequences of my behavior.
3) I live in a fallen world where sin, injury, problems of nature, and death are part of life. I am a sinner and I live with sinners. I don’t like it, but this is reality.
We must tell ourselves the facts of life:
1) I am a sinner living in a fallen world. I should not be surprised at fiery trials.
2) If I got what I deserved, I’d be dead. I am not entitled to only good things.
3) Life is not about Me. Don’t look at everything through the capital “M,” “Me.” Christians are God’s servants. How we handle suffering is a powerful testimony.
4) God is Sovereign. He is in control of this situation. I am His child (Make sure that is true. See Becoming a Child of God.) He has a loving purpose for this.
If we think we don’t deserve it, we have two things to cry about:
1) The pain itself, and
2) The belief that the pain is unfair.
Nothing is so certain as suffering. Plan now how to deal with it.
1) Ask yourself: How do I glorify God in this?
2) Ask yourself: Is there something I need to do?
3) Trust in God and make Him your refuge.
What have you learned from suffering?
Do you have tips for the rest of us?
