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7 Suggestions for Processing Pain

By September 28, 2012Christians, Encouragement, God

I tweeted recently: We all make a decision how we respond to the pain in our life. It is one of the most important decisions we’ll ever make.

Someone tweeted back a great question. What’s s great way to process (emotional) pain?

Here are 7 biblical ways:

Expect God to use pain for good – Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28

Use it to comfort others with similar pain – 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Reconsider your perspective on the pain – Romans 8:18

Receive the honor of suffering pain – Philippians 1:29

Accept the normality of pain – 1 Peter 4:12

Celebrate His sufficiency during pain -2 Corinthians 12:8-9

Look for the reward in suffering through pain – 2 Timothy 4:7-8

How we respond to emotional pain is a choice we make. The promises of God are real, even during our times of suffering. In the earliest days of any trial, we may not see any of these truths at work. That’s okay. We are frail people. The key is as we move forward, what we do with the pain in the days to come. Painful times are not going away in this earthly life. Jesus told us that. Learning to rest in Him is part of maturing as followers of Christ.

Suffering reminds us that His grace is sufficient for all our pain. In fact, though I don’t completely understand it, His power is perfect in our weakness, but only when I surrender the pain to Him.

We are not intended to handle pain alone. Thankfully, by His grace, we don’t have to.

Are you learning to “cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you”?

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Ron Edmondson

Author Ron Edmondson

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Join the discussion 16 Comments

  • Today, I went to the beach with my children.

    I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old
    daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed.
    There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
    She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!

  • Bob
    Twitter:
    says:

    Thank you, Ron. This is so fitting, even though you wrote it a while back. God immediately put a couple people in mind to share this.

  • Gene Akey says:

    I feel that I am so benefited to get your suggestions for processing pain. Really I appreciate a lot about your suggestions for processing pain. I am so pleased to get this allocation in this website at all. Thank you for posting this allocation in this website at all. Thanks and inform like this…

  • Angel Long says:

    Thank you for this!
    In my experience, I’ve found, in times of extreme hurt & loss, we tend to either draw closer to God or turn away from Him. There’ve been times I’ve done both. I can say with certainty there is so much more peace & comfort in running TO God with my pain & seeking His face. There’s never been a time my pain was purposeless or in vain. There’s also never been a time God has not ultimately worked it to my good. There’s never been a time I’ve not learned something and grown in my relationship with God. There are blessings in hurt & loss, if we’re willing to receive them.
    Thank you again for this post. It was so reassuring & strengthening.

  • kmac4him
    Twitter:
    says:

    Reconsider your perspective on the pain is a really good one. We sometimes live way too much with an "earthly perspective" when this is not really our home, this is not really where we belong. Maybe pain helps us to flip-flop our perspective to a "kingdom perspective". Recently my brother in law commit suicide, it was such a hard thing to try to even wrap our minds around, so painful, so senseless…. More and more I am thinking I need to have a priority to develop my "kingdom perspective" and begin letting it trump my "earthly perspective", to the point where my prayer is not only "more of YOU Jesus, less of me" but "more of Your Kingdom, Jesus, less of this world"

  • alszambrano says:

    My family has recently been through tremendous pain – the loss of our firstborn child after his premature birth. This path of grief and suffering has been surprising at every turn, and I think it is because we did not expect pain as a normal part of our existence. We also did not anticipate that the ways this pain would affect our daily lives. The greatest gift the last six months of my life has brought is a desire for heaven – a desire to dwell in the perfection of our Father's presence where pain will finally not exist.

    And I have to add to Kandace's theory that there are only two sources of pain: pain caused by others and pain cause by our own choices. I can think of at least one additional source of pain: the fact that we live in a sinful, fallen world. The pain I experienced in the loss of my son was not caused by someone else, and it was not the result of any of my own actions. I think Job's sufferings are a great example of that. We must avoid the temptation of trying to blame all pain on a specific sin act.

    • ronedmondson says:

      I am so sorry. There's no way t describe that kind of pain or understand it if you haven't lived it. Praying for you now and thankful for your perspective.Absolutely agree, not all pain is the result of sin. We live in a fallen world.

  • Kandace says:

    There are 2 different sources of pain but both can be redemptive when we surrender to God. There is pain caused by others and pain caused by our own choices. It’s easier to believe He will redeem the former but He will redeem the later when we repent and seek restoration. There are those hiding in shame because they don’t believe His grace is greater than their sin. When we see His discipline as His love we will come out from hiding and ” turn and strengthen our brothers/sisters.”