I'm going through a season in my life where everything seems to hurt. Finances hurt. getting up hurts, unmet expectations hurt. At times, I feel so overwhelmed, I don't know what to do (well, I do, but I conveniently forget as I am adrift in a sea of self-pity). As I look on Social Media, and even with people I talk to as I go along my way, I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. What do we do when everything seems to hurt, mentally, physically, and emotionally?
Our pain has a power to transform us, for great, or for worse. It is the trigger that makes us either more self-focused or can get us doing the opposite. If we focus on ourselves, we fall in to more self-pity, self-loathing, self-love. If we fall on the one who carries burdens we were never designed to carry, we can have joy, even in the middle of our worst suffering. The Bible says "Cast your cares on Him, for He Cares for you." This was written by a fisherman who knew how to cast (1 Peter 5:7).
Peter was a worrier, a self-focused man who had a lot of failures that haunted him. Jesus saw past all of Peter's self-focus, and forged him in to the man who would inaugurate the church on the Day of Pentecost, and lead that first church community in to growth. If Jesus could do that for Peter, what can He do for you?
1 Peter 5: English Standard Version
6Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
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