Scripture

Psalm 30:5b (NKJV)

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Consider

Pain is a sure indicator that we have somehow been injured. Physical pain alerts us to damage in our body and the need to take immediate action. Whether the result of physical trauma, stress, or disease, pain captures our attention and motivates us to do something to relieve it.

Similarly, emotional pain tells us that we have suffered an injury to the heart. The cause might be personal betrayal by a friend or someone’s impersonal act that nevertheless hurts us. The injury damages us where we are most tender and vulnerable, and we suffer pain as real and severe as any physical wounding. We also suffer the same desperate urgency to relieve the pain.

In our urgency to find relief, we face two choices. We can ask God to help us carry the pain and trust him to bring something good from our suffering. Or we can let our pain turn into poison that corrupts our faith and turns us away from God.

Poisonous pain is corrosive. It is bitterness that eats away at our peace and damages our relationships. Poisonous pain tempts us into evil ways unworthy of a follower of Christ and hostile to the ways of God. Pain that has turned poisonous prompts its own relief by inflicting pain on others, by damaging reputations, gossiping, seeking vengeance, and stirring up rage and hatred.

The apostle Paul warns believers about this corrosive threat in Ephesians 4:32:

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Notice that Paul does not say, Get rid of all pain. Pain is not the problem. The problem is in allowing sin to control our pain and generate poisonous attitudes and behaviors that can only cause further harm.

Forgiving the people who hurt us does not necessarily bring freedom from pain. In forgiving we may have to accept the pain of a loss that can never be recovered. But in forgiving we let go of the poisonous pain that blocks the Spirit’s healing work in our lives. When we turn to God in our pain, God can help us carry it. In addition, God may reshape our experience into an unexpected blessing, granting us a humble heart more finely tuned to the Spirit’s voice, teaching us wisdom that we can share with others who suffer as we do, or giving us grace and compassion to bless the person who injured us.

Pray

FATHER, I am not good at handling emotional pain. I either hide from it or I let it consume my thoughts and sour my attitudes. Please help me to carry the weight of my pain so that it does not force me into evil ways. Cleanse my heart from poisonous anger and bitterness. Give me faith to see the ways you would use my pain to make me more like Jesus and to bring your kingdom into the world of my relationships.

Reflect

Romans 8:28, 12:12

Challenge

Name one way that your pain tempts you to sin. How might God redirect that temptation?