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The Bible commands us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh” (Romans 13:14) and to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). He tells us to take control of our thoughts because we are, in fact, able to do so. Expressing our feelings is an important part of healing, but we cannot get stuck in our emotions. Feeling cannot replace thinking. We have no choice in our feelings, but we have great choice in our thoughts.

During my years in postgraduate work, I would hear psychologists affirm this phenomenon in research on brain function and intrusive thoughts, concluding that humans actually have ninety-five percent control over their thoughts. Let’s say the remaining five percent are spiritual warfare or automatic responses from trauma and triggers. The theology and psychology are clear: we have a choice in the majority of what we believe about our situation, about others, and about God.

The issue of suffering comes into play when we want to ask God for big prayers, but pain and suffering on both a personal and global level have a way of stopping us before we begin. Even Jesus, the Son of God, cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). This makes questioning God’s presence seem almost fated for those closest to Him. After all, as children of God, we have tasted His goodness. We know His power. We have a relationship with Him—and so perhaps we are more likely to feel His perceived absence than those who do not.

Nothing seemed good about Jesus’s dying on the cross. The disciples were terrified, the cause of Christ was halted, and Jesus was dead. But that was the perspective of Friday. On Sunday morning, when Jesus rose from the dead, people finally understood that all things really had happened for a reason—Jesus defeated death, so that we could have eternal life.

God did not answer Jesus’s prayer before the cross to “remove this cup from Me” (Luke 22:42), but Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). Running to God instead of away from God in the midst of suffering is not a natural response. It is the supernatural response that God equips His children with as we stare grief, uncertainty, fear, and sometimes Satan himself in the face. 

Confess what is keeping you from trusting God with your dreams. Ask Him for wisdom and faith to rest with the way He chooses to answer.