Are you in pain?

Has the light gone out of your friendship and relationship with God?

Are you finding it impossible to trust Him?

Are you finding it impossible to trust yourself?

Then this article is for you.

In your Christian walk, no matter how dedicated and close to the Lord you might be, there can come a time when you experience what seems to be the ‘absence’ of the Lord.

You cannot connect to Him, find, hear from, or relate to Him in the way that you once could so easily.

To make matters much worse, this often happens precisely at the time in your life that you need the Lord most —times, for example, of personal pain, trauma or crisis.

The longer this ‘dis-connectedness’ continues the more distressing and painful it becomes —emotionally, mentally, spiritually and, yes, even physically.

In fact, your lack of inner peace and joy can drain you psychologically, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Soon, you might find yourself becoming upset, and angry with the Lord Himself.

And with good reason; for you know in your heart that you’ve always loved the Lord and been loyal to Him.

Like the psalmist (Psalm 44: 17 – 18), you ask why He seems to have turned His back on you now —just when you need Him most.

Listen to the psalmist:

All this (tragedy and trauma) came upon us,

though we had not forgotten you;

We had not been false to your covenant.

Our hearts had not turned back;

our feet had not strayed from your path.

Psalm 44: 17 – 18 NIV

 

You are sorely tempted to run from your pain.

And that’s exactly what Satan wants you to do.

But the Lord wants the opposite.

He wants you to

• admit
• face

your pain.

Please don’t ever run from your pain!

Why?

Because —as unbelievable as it might first seem —pain and loss ALWAYS herald new life for you.

Look, for instance, at the trees in winter.

They have no leaves.

Only their trunks and branches still stand.

Yet this is exactly when new life is taking hold deep within these trees.

It’s precisely the same with your pain.

Even though you’re experiencing deep pain, your trunk and branches are still standing erect.

And your experience of deep inner pain contains within it the seeds of new life for you.

The question is:

How do you actually get those seeds to blossom?

How do you actually arrive at new life?

Here’s the answer.

To arrive at that new life, you have to begin digging deeper than the pain!

You can do this most effectively by spending time in the Lord’s presence and, in His presence, experiencing firsthand and directly —without filters —His LOVE and REST (PEACE).

But you need to do this for a few minutes (5 -10 -20 minutes each day —you get to choose how many minutes) —the same time it takes you to enjoy a cup of your favourite beverage. 

That’s how you’ll connect to God again.

That’s how you’ll discover God again.

And you’ll do so at a deeper and more ‘real’ level than you ever thought possible.

And once you connect to God in this deep way, He then takes over.

He takes responsibility for making the seeds contained in your pain blossom and bloom.

You see, you find God IN your pain, not some imaginary place outside of it!

That’s precisely why you should acknowledge and face your pain, embrace it, and never deny or run from it.

God is hiding right inside your pain!

Once you begin to dig, you’ll gradually discover that the Lord has been with you all the time.

It’s in your pain that He’s been fully present.

You see, God inhabits ALL your life experiences, not just the ones that feel good and bring you ‘happiness’.

He’s been ‘hiding’ in your pain all along.

If you deny or run from your pain, you’ll miss God!

If you accept it and own it, you’ll discover God in a new way.

I know this, because 37 years ago it happened to me.

 

 

 

The Truly Good News for You

I’ve got some truly good news for you.

You mightn’t be able to appreciate this right now, but your crisis is, in fact, an opportunity the Lord is giving you to let Him come closer to you, to connect with you at a deeper level, and in a fresh way.

You see, it’s not what you think.

The Lord is, in fact, very present to you.

He wants to find you, to love you into new life.

The problem is: because of the negative thoughts and emotions caused by your pain are weighing you down, you are not able to be present to Him.

And since He’s never going to force Himself on you, He has to find a different way to engage you, a way that allows you to be present to Him.

Two Kinds of Help are Necessary for You Now

Two kinds of help are necessary for you now.

You need

 

1. A way to allow God to come close to you so He can give you the love, wisdom, guidance and protection that you need so much at this time. 

2. Some form of sound spiritual guidance to help you successfully navigate this time of spiritual fog. 

Reliable spiritual guidance  

• provides personal spiritual stability for you
• helps you deepen your faith in God’s LOVE for you
• provides you with encouragement to persevere in your digging

 

Each one of these is extremely important to your continuing wellbeing as you move through your pain and crisis.

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It’s Always God’s Love That Heals You

It’s always God’s love that heals you.

This is why you need to spend regular time in His presence.

Once in His presence, you open yourself up to His healing love and rest.

Restoration and healing from painful life experiences don’t happen overnight.

Both take time.

Anything worthwhile in life always does.

Both are processes.

But here’s the good news:

The healing, new-life process begins from the very first moment that you use this way of connecting back to God.

 

From the very first moment that you decide to spend a few minutes each day in the Lord’s presence, your HEALING begins.

From the very first moment that you decide to spend a few minutes each day in the Lord’s presence, the seeds contained in your pain start their gradual transformation into blooms and blossoms.

 

Though you won’t feel it right away, new life begins to take hold.

 

It will take some time for you to start to see results.

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Read Part 2 of this article here 

 

 

Recap …