How do you deal with pain?

We live in a fallen world.   This is a sad but true reality.  Yes, there is redemption, always hope and even when wronged, we can choose to forgive.  Forgiveness doesn't change the reality of the fallen-ness, it simply sets the forgiver free.

I've been having to do a lot of forgiving recently, and I've had to ask for forgiveness.  Something that strikes me as continually challenging in Christian cultures is the way that people talk about forgiveness and the way they walk  it out.  Myself included.

I wish I understood even 1/100th of God's heart toward people...then I would really walk in the freedom that forgiveness brings.  

There's an old addage which remains true:  hurt people hurt people...or even better put:  hurting people hurt people.  Even if we don't want to, we hurt people simply by virtue of being a living person on planet earth.  The key is how we deal with that hurt.

Do we turn our backs?  Do we say "it doesn't matter".  Do we dismiss those people who have hurt us or those we love and as my good friend used to say:  FIDO:  Flush It and Drive On.  I believe in FIDO in some cases, but when you do it out of hurt rather than out of health, it is emerging out of deep-pain.

So, how do we deal with pain?  There is one who endured the most brutal pain anyone could ever imagine...betrayal, beating, mockery, false accusation, and death on a cross.  His response:  "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Do we speak this over our situations and over those in our lives who have caused us pain?  More importantly, do we speak this over ourselves when WE have caused others pain?  The greatest truth in all of this is this:  Our God is the God who is the promise-keeper, and He has kept and will keep every promise He has ever made!  He knows every heartache, every wrong word spoken, every dream dashed, every brokenness in every person's heart, and His promise is to make ALL THINGS NEW!  


Tapping in to the grace and mercy of God in the midst of pain is one of the most wonderful adventures we have been afforded as believers in Yeshua!  Only God can do the God-things in our lives, and as we let Him, He will transform us into His likeness, from glory to glory, that His glory will be manifest on the earth in and through us!