Isaiah 41:10
Do Not Fear Because God is With You
10 So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
There seems to be two ways to face or respond to the pain and suffering one has...One is by studying it and the other is to express it, react to it and try to handle it by recoiling in it...One seems to react, as best you can, in kind and friendly responses to your suffering...The other is recoiling and more of a reaction to it...God LOVES everyone and does not accept one type of response over the other...God understands those people who fight, and talk about it negatively, and scream as well as those who learn that suffering can be a means of Grace, of transformation...
Job seemed not really to meditate on his pain but took his honest feelings to God and expressed himself to his Father with the pains and sufferings he was having...He was certainly aware of his pain and he let God know about it and how he felt about these things...Talking to others like Job did with his friends, sometimes helps...But we noticed when Job talked to God, Job felt much better...When Paul talked about the thorn in his side, he said God told him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."...Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me...That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties...
God allowed His Son to suffer with pain before and on the cross...So He knows a lot about pain and suffering...So what way you choose and the choice you make to handle pain is your way...The one way to work on your pain is to meditate on it, ask God to be with you while you study your pain...Meditation has been found to use neural pathways that help make our brain less sensitive to pain and increases use of the brain's own pain-reducing opioids...People who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less...Meditating on pain with God, our Father, helps us learn from pain and the suffering we have...On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate”...
Author Philip Yancey writes, “The suffering person faces choices...She can recoil in anger and despair against God...Or she can accept the trial as an opportunity for joy...I do not mean to imply that God LOVES one type of sufferer and rejects the other, or even that one is more “spiritual” than the other...I believe God understands those people who kick and struggle and scream as well as those who learn that suffering can be a means of grace, of transformation...(Remember, God had far more sympathy for Job’s honest ravings than for his friends’ pieties.)...God does not need our good responses for himself, to satisfy some jealous parental hunger...He directs attention from cause to response for our sakes, not His...Indeed, the path of joyful acceptance is self-healing: an attitude of joy and gratitude will reduce stress, calm nerves, allay fears, help mobilize bodily defenses.”...