Pain: You want to avoid it but sooner or later it comes your way in some form. Whether it’s physical pain, emotional pain, relational pain, or financial pain it’s impossible to escape. The question isn’t how do you avoid the pain but how do you respond to the pain. You can choose to run away from God or you can choose to run towards Him. You can choose to cover up or open up. Running away from God and covering up is the normal response of many people but it leads to greater pain in the long run. It leads to a life of anxiety, fear, bitterness, and hopelessness. God doesn’t want you to live that way. He wants to help you move through the pain and come out stronger on the other side. He has provided the cure to your pain: healing grace. His healing grace moves you to forgive, to receive forgiveness, to hope, to love, to encourage and to release the pain to Him.

Scriptures
Phil 1:6, Psalm 34:17-18, Psalm 147:3, Isaiah 26:3, 2 Corinthians 10:5, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Verses
Psalm 34:17-18 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Thought
When people are faced with pain many times they ask, “Why? Why is this happening, God?” The short answer is free will. This answer rarely satisfies but it does help us navigate a little bit better through the pain. God gave human beings free will so they could choose to freely love Him. However, free will also allows us to choose to disobey Him, to choose to go our own way. When faced with pain it normally falls under one of five categories.
1. Choices that we make – We drive too fast on the highway and get a speeding ticket. We face financial pain because of choosing to speed.
2. Choices that others make that directly impact us – A couple decides to get a divorce and the children have to work through the emotional pain of their parents’ separation.
3. Choices made in a fallen and broken world – Political scandal, economic upheaval, crime, moral bankruptcy, sickness, disease and a host of others decisions made in a broken world that impact all of us in one way or another.
4. Choices made by our enemy (Satan) to bring us down. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8, Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
5. Choices God makes for the greater good. The greatest example is that God chose that his Son should die for the sins of humanity. And Jesus surrendered his free will to obey his Father.

Questions
Do you know someone who’s held onto their pain and it’s radically altered their life? What makes it difficult to surrender our pain to God? Can you describe a time when you received God’s healing grace? How can God use someone’s pain to help someone else through their pain? When faced with pain what category does it normally fall under?

Response
God wants you to surrender to him when you’re in pain. Surrender your heart, surrender your thoughts, and surrender your focus. Allow Him to use your pain to help others going through difficult circumstances.

Prayer
Dear Father, I thank you that your healing grace can move through my pain to have victory on the other side. Help me to surrender to you. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.