Finding God (In Your Moment of Pain)

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalms 147:3

Who on this earth can say they have never had a broken heart? If they say they have never felt the pain of a broken heart they are not being honest. When the heart breaks no one can hear it, you feel it, and feel it deeply. There is some one that does hear it….God He not only hears it loud and clear but He too feels it deeply. We all can say yes, I have had a broken heart, but each one of us has a different story to tell on how it was broken. The most painful ones are the ones from those that are the closest to us. Family has been on the top of the list for the most pain that someone can cause. We all know the story of Joseph in the Bible all too well. I think this is one of my most favorites in the Old Testament. Joseph was hated by his brothers, so much in fact they threw him in a hole and left him there to die. He was sold into slavery by The Midianites in Egypt to Potiphar, the courtier of Pharaoh. Step by step of this story you can see the trials and suffering that he went through. But he never wavered on his faith he stayed true to God. Can you imagine? To be that betrayed by your own flesh and blood? For what because they are jealous and angry? Not caring how many people they hurt including the one the damage is intended for? The sad thing is many of us can relate to this story. We try and do what is right and it seems we are hurt the more for it. This is where we are…in this world but always remember and keep this close to your broken heart; God always prevails for his righteous. I will cover briefly Joseph because I can write a whole entire book on Joseph’s story.

As heartbreaking and gloomy as it is in the beginning, we all need to read this story because as Christians we can find not only our-selves in this same situation but we can find hope. You see it was because of the pain that others caused me many years ago that lead me right into the path of Jesus Christ. That is right I was born again, it was in that pain that I found the Lord. It was not in my most happiest moment it was when I was in my saddest moment. When the heart of one of his children breaks we grab the upmost attention of our Lord. Instantly when we cry out to him he is quick to our need of comfort, repentance, and weakness. God is the most amazing God, as I stated I found him in my most painful moments. For weeks I felt a tug on my heart. God was pulling my heartstrings as I walked around all wounded, bruised and pitiful. I felt a presence in that moment. A presence I had never felt before it was God letting me know He was there. It was the first time I was truly receptive to him. Of course He has always been there but that moment was different for me in that split second of the most pain I had ever felt in my life it was time for God to intervene but in order for him to I had to surrender it all, everything to him. Even though Joseph was in his darkest as well he leaned on the Lord and found the strength he needed to carry on. Like Joseph I was rock bottom I gave up everything and I literally turned around and fell to my knees and I have been changed ever since! I thank God EVERYDAY for that pain in that moment because I found him in it.

Think about the cross how devastating that was in that moment it looked like all was lost! God had a plan even in that most horrific moment God was in control. His son drank the sins of the world and to those that think it is wrong for God to allow this do not understand what it is like to know a perfect, holy, God. Why did he do this? So we can be where we are now in God’s grace and mercy so we can turn around in our moments fall to our knees and find salvation! God, I think takes everything he can to reach you in a dark, broken world. Joseph, he was in some pretty dark moments like Christ but in the end the picture that was so dark and bleak, well God rises and shows what that ultimate plan is every single time. One person’s pain and suffering can be for many, God used Joseph to save his people what an ending it is! Most importantly there is hope, forgiveness, love, and salvation! God knows it is the in-between that we struggle with this is when faith is tested it was for Jesus and Joseph, it is also a moment that God is using to show you his power and that he is in control. He wants you to know that He has not forgotten you or abandoned you because He has a plan! And the plan in the story of Joseph? God is showing you he can fix anything. What you really see in this story is that God in the end took this dysfunctional family and built nations for the world out of them. Pretty amazing stuff huh? In our human eyes we see only a moment…God sees eternity. He sees it all He allows us to feel it all in so many moments not because he does not care. He is allowing it for a reason. But the most important moment to him is when we feel him in it and we start trusting him and that is when we surrender. He wants all your pain, anger, hate, suffering, he wants to take it turn it around and fix it. What is really amazing about that is that you come out of it different, changed, understanding that there is something that is mighty powerful that not only accepts us for who we are but without a doubt loves us no matter how far we fall from grace, no matter how many times we turn on him. God in a moment of your most unbelievable pain will reach out to you. If there are only 100 steps to his throne all we have to do is take one step and he will take the other 99.

I guess what I am trying to say is we can take the pain for what it is “PAIN” fall into depression and pity our-selves or we can find God in it, because you know what? He is in it very much He feels it right along with you and there is always a reason for it. I have an understanding of the pain from my past, even though I have lost so much. I have gained something that will never ever be taken away from me. A closer relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! The ending? Well I am not there yet but I do know the Lord is with me and He has a plan, He knows every single tear that I have cried, he has held my hand, Jesus has delivered my prayers directly to the throne of God, He has cried right along with me. As his servant I await, I await patiently.

It is because of the cross we now have a choice. We can remain in a dark, cold, and lonely place, or we can feel God in that moment like a warm campfire embracing our souls and lighting the way. We have so many moments in our lives but take a moment and feel the warmth of his love when the ones closest to you have grown cold.

Amen.

 © Shannon Wendler – October 5, 2010