4 Gifts Hidden in Your Pain and Suffering
The tangerine glow on the horizon marked the first sunrise after a bleak winter of pain and suffering.
I drew back the curtains to watch the fiery light rise in the east. It had been overcast for weeks that felt more like months that felt more like years. The state of my soul had been equally bleak for however long it actually happened to be.
The Valley of Pain and Suffering
We’d been in a valley of pain and suffering for far too long. It was a long valley with foreboding walls on both sides. I was afraid it was a box valley, a canyon with walls on three sides. Once you reach the valley’s head, the only way out is to claw your way up over the rocky outcroppings.
I know all about clawing my way out of canyons, and it’s not just because I’ve climbed out of a few box canyons. It’s because I prefer to claw my way out of most of life’s pain and suffering in my own timing and in my own strength.
When You Face a Long Season of Pain and Suffering
Bring me a valley of grief, and I’m going to do everything I know to walk through it as quickly as possible. I’m going to be intentional about walking through the stages of grief. But I’m not going to linger one minute longer than necessary.
My hurried attitude was much the same throughout my long season of suffering. I kept my eyes on the goal of getting out of the valley. I watched for the faint line of daylight, the line where alpenglow breaks through the shadows.
There’s nothing wrong with watching the ever-approaching ridgelines of our valleys as we keep our eyes on our goals. However, it’s important to step back and ask ourselves what goals we are truly chasing.
What Is Your Goal in Times of Pain and Suffering?
The question becomes this: What is your goal in times of pain and suffering? Is your goal to simply get out of this valley? Or is your goal Jesus Christ and nothing less?
Because if your only goal is the ridgeline, the healing of your disease, the birth of your dream, and the mending of what is broken, you might just miss the entire purpose of this valley.
I was creatively conniving any possible way to scratch, claw, and climb out of my valley the morning the sunlight returned to our world. I was counting days, calculating, making plans, and doing all I knew to do. None of these efforts were wrong in themselves. What was wrong was that I’d fixed my eyes on the wrong source of hope.
When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will be tempted to fix your eyes on the ridgeline. You will be tempted to put your hope in the day when you finally climb out of the canyon.
Fix Your Eyes Here in Times of Pain and Suffering
What if, instead of looking for a way out, you fixed your eyes on the Shepherd who walks with you through the valley? What if you made him your goal?
The words ran through my mind like a poem I’d learned a lifetime ago: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
The reminder came gently, like peach rays through a streaked windowpane: Hope is not found in climbing out of this valley; hope is found by holding onto the One who walks with you. Put your hope in the One who will never leave you, and hope won’t let you down.
Hope is not found in climbing out of this valley; hope is found by holding onto the One who walks with you. #hopeinsuffering #suffering #valleysinlife #trials #Godwithus Share on XWhat does this mean on cold winter mornings with no sign of spring in sight? What does it mean by hospital beds and in our valleys of pain?
Perhaps it means learning to grab hold of Jesus’ gifts in life’s valleys.
Jesus Offers These Gifts in the Valleys of Life:
When you put your hope in Jesus, climbing out of the valley isn’t your ultimate goal. Instead, your goal is to press closer to the One who holds you through the darkest days.
He is working in your valley of pain and suffering.
He is molding and shaping you.
Let’s close by looking at how God shapes us through valleys of pain and suffering:
1. God is using your pain and suffering to mature you.
God will use this valley to mature you, to make you complete, lacking nothing. This maturity will be used to fulfill his perfect will for your life. He is using this season of suffering to sculpt you in a way no easy stretch of life ever could.
2. God will use this season of pain and suffering to mold you into the image of Jesus.
Affliction is God’s primary tool to help us grow in Christlikeness.
I have learned that when life gets hard, God is working in my life. He is helping me to grow and change as he shapes my heart into the image of his Son.
When I look more like Jesus, I am able to fulfill my calling with greater love. Lives are changed, and God gets the glory.
3. This valley is an opportunity to press close to the heart of the Lord and know him more deeply.
You will come to know God more intimately as you share in the suffering of Christ. Your valley of pain and suffering is an opportunity to encounter him as your Comforter in a way you never would have found him, had you never needed his comfort.
4. Your pain and suffering will ultimately be used for God’s glory.
How is God glorified through our pain and suffering?
When we point to the hope we find in him, we point others to his paradoxical way of hope.
When we comfort others with the comfort we have received from Christ, we give glory and honor to God. We literally become the embodied love of Christ on this earth.
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As the sun rose higher that brisk morning, I didn’t know how much longer our walk through the canyon might last. I did know this: I stopped looking for an escape route, and I fixed my eyes on a Shepherd.
A Free Devotional for Times of Pain and Suffering:
Lastly, I have a gift for you today. Hope for Hard Days is my free 10-day online devotional to help you hold onto hope when life is tough. You will find 10 readings to help you connect with God and claim his peace. Click here and I’ll send it to your email inbox today for free with promo code HOPE.
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