No Pain Ever Goes to Waste With God.

'Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”  But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.'

Job 2:9-10

Job statement here is profound. He basically says, “I do not understand what the heck is going on but I know God has His reasons.” 

I thought about these verses and tried to find application today: If I love God only when He gives me good things, I'm not really loving God. I'm loving the good life He has given me. Loving God is believing the truth about Him and trusting Him even when my life's circumstances don't look good. 

In Job's case we see that one of the reasons God allowed Job's testing was to prove Job loved Him, in the good and the bad, in the times of abundance and in the times of loss.

Job said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and I will be taken naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord." 

Job 1:21

Another reason it seems God allowed this testing was that through it, Job displays the glory of God. His satisfaction and faith in God through unbearable pain and loss prove that God is what He claims to be. Oh how my heart desires to love God for who He is and not just what He gives me and how I long to glorify Him with my life.

I have been thinking on some of my deepest times of pain, remembering scripture was the only thing that seemed to soothe the pain. I'm not in a deep place of pain right now but I know those who are. I typically shy away from saying anything that could come across "trite" to those in pain but today my heart so badly wants to help in some way. So, I thought on what truth meant the most to me in my pain:

1) God loves you. He never overlooks or diminishes pain.

Psalm 56:8 says "God keeps track of all our sorrows. He collects all our tears in His bottle. Each one has been recorded in your book." When you feel like no one sees you, no one truly understands, everyone has forgotten you are hurting, remember God hasn't. I picture Him crying with those hurting, weeping with them, caring enough to take each tear and put it in a bottle.

2) He has a plan to use this pain.

Romans 8:28 makes the promise that "God will work all things together for the good of Him who love Him." This means even if the pain you are feeling is partially because of your sin, if you love Jesus, He will use it for good and for His glory. And if your pain feels pointless and your asking why? Even this pain He promises to use. No pain ever goes to waste with God. 

3) He promises to make you stronger through it, keep clinging to Him. 

On days I felt like I couldn't even move, on days when I felt like I took one step back and was frustrated with my progress; this verse brought me comfort. "After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to be His child, who wants to spend an eternity in heaven with you, will Himself complete you, making you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen you and settle you." (1 Peter 5:10)



I know these truths do not take away one single ounce of pain. I know they don't..... but..... I pray today, these truths provide an once of comfort and hope in pain.