Praying Women By Sheila WalshSýnishorn

Day 3

Offer Your Pain to Christ

I recently came across a short one-act play by Thornton Wilder called The Angel That Troubled the Waters. It touched me deeply. In this play, Wilder imagines a doctor, desperately troubled by bouts of depression, coming to the pool of Bethesda, longing to be healed. 

One day he sees the angel trouble the water, and as he is about to step in before any of those with more obvious sicknesses, the angel stops him and confronts him with this powerful truth: the only soldiers who can serve in Love’s army are those who have been wounded. It’s his very wounds that have made him such a compassionate doctor.

Pain comes in all sorts of packages. Sometimes they are deep emotional wounds. Other times the wounds are physical, almost more than you can bear. You may be in the greatest pain of your life, struggling to pray through it. Sometimes all I can say is, “Lord, this hurts so badly.” 

We can read a Scripture passage that tells us the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, but until our hearts have been broken, we can’t understand how true those words are. When we offer our pain to Christ, He can make something beautiful in our lives and in the lives of others. I don’t know your wounds, but Jesus does. You can waste those wounds, or you can see them as the place where your authority lies in Jesus’ name. When you pray through your pain, you become a mighty warrior in Love’s army. You are not alone, process your pain in the presence of Christ.

A PRAYER WHEN YOU’RE IN PAIN

Father,

I would not have asked for this load. At times, it feels too much to bear, but You have chosen to let this be my story. I choose now to make it Your story. I hear You say, “Rise up and walk.” In Your name and in Your strength, I will. Amen.