Grief Bites: A New Approach to Growing Through GriefSample

Who initially brought Job up? God did. I am not nearly as blameless as Job.

Sometimes grief comes not from death, but by the bitter sting of hurt or betrayal.

Have you ever been deeply hurt by a Christian? I’m not talking about a simple sleight. The hurt I am talking about is one of deeply embedded, faith sucking, life altering-cry yourself to sleep affect.

Has the pain become a companion that you bear up under or has it come to the point that you would like to move to the next chapter? A friend once asked me the same question. My initial reaction was one of anger. I thought “You have no idea what I have gone through!” He then told me something that has had a profound effect upon my life..

“If you want to overcome your pain you will first need to identify who caused you the pain”....“It is not who you think.”

He went on to explain “The people you are thinking of are not the ones who caused you pain. In fact the source of your pain did not even originate in this world. It originated in another sphere altogether”.
“Your pain came from the spiritual realm and the first step to getting through it is to know that God allowed it”.

His unsolicited words cut deep within me. He was a friend so I listened and learned. I thank God that I did.

Job was a man who suffered tremendous loss and calamity. He lost so much yet refused to give in to the advice of his wife and family. For forty chapters they blame him for the multiple calamities he faced. The best of their theology and misinformation boiled down to CURSE GOD AND DIE. Surely Job felt the bitter sting of hurt and betrayal from those closest to Him.

Any pain that you have experienced has more purpose in it than you realize and capacity than you can imagine. Your pain was allowed to begin a magnificent transformation in your life. It has the capacity to bring you to the exact place that the Lord wants you.

There is nothing which more exposes a Christian's weakness than how he reacts to pain. Anger, resentment, gossip, ugliness. Those are normal reactions. You can also choose to react in peace, faith, and hope, even without understanding.

When you choose to trust God with your pain you allow Him to remove more of you which is not Christ. Pain that is met with faith has resolution and great transforming ability. When God allows pain to enter the life of one of His children, He also limits it. He also allows it to end in triumph. When you begin to see your pain as an act of God, He can begin to have His Will. Suddenly your pain begins to be a holy work of God.