If I could give you a medication that made it impossible for you to feel any pain, you would be foolish to take it. If you could step on a nail and it didn’t hurt or even worse, if it felt good to step on that nail, what would you do? You would certainly be less careful about protecting yourself, and , being human, you might even find yourself looking for nails to tromp on! Physical pain says, “hey there is a problem here, take care of it”.

Emotional pain, loneliness, fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, emptiness, etc. serve the same purpose-to identify the problem and urge us to do what we can to provide for the need, to fix the  problem  and to prevent further problems from arising.

Think with me, what is the purpose of loneliness?  – Probably not enough intimacy especially with God; fear? – watch out for impending danger and prepare and try to avoid it; anger? – someone is deliberately doing things that endanger others, is there any way to work with them to stop? ; sadness?  – there has been a loss and is there anything I can do to prevent further loss?; emptiness? – I may be busy but am I doing what God wants me to do? Am I reveling in my relationship with him?

When I identify the purpose of the blessed pain, respond by doing my part and then leave the results to God, then any further pain and care must be cast on him for now it has served it’s  purpose and hanging on to it is to resent that I can’t do God’s part for him.

THANK YOU LORD FOR PAIN, HELP ME TO RESPOND TO IT AND THEN CAST THE REST BACK ON YOU – OVER AND OVER AGAIN IF I HAVE TO.