Hope Through Pain

Have you ever thought that if there were no trials in life, there would be no reason to believe in God?

One of my friends hit me with that statement recently.

It reminds me of a verse in 2^nd Corinthians, which goes like this:

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. (2^nd Cor 1:9)

That’s my favourite verse. It gives me hope—extreme hope. Not the hope that my life will be perfect, not the hope that I’ll never have to face the death of a friend, not the hope that I’ll have the perfect job—none of that. But hope that even if I have to live through the worst heartache imaginable, even if I have to see people turn away from me over and over again, even if nothing goes right and I feel like a failure that I have a God to rely on. Even if my life reaches the lowest point imaginable I have a God who raises the dead. I have a God who will raise me up to be all that he wants me to be. I have a God who will use that heartache, will use that failure, will use that rejection to further His kingdom and to bring Him glory.

Don’t you see? Being a Christian doesn’t mean that we have a pain-free life, it means that the pain is for a reason. The pain is not meaningless—but is a tool that God will use to bring him glory.

And you know what? When God is glorified, his subjects are glorified.

Not many people in North America have gone through as much as Paul did. But still he was able to say that all the pain was worth it in the end. He doesn’t call us to be happy all through the pain—he says himself that in his heart he felt the sentence of death.

But we are called to have faith. And we are called to believe. And the reason we believe is because God is sovereign. God is not passive—he is active. God is able to use your heartbreak, your pain, your rejection, your failures—and he is able to use them in a way that you could never even imagine.

God is sovereign. Are you willing to hand your pain over to him?