Quotes about Suffering

The roots of this friendship that once nourished me in deep places now ache with a barren flow. The conversations and connections have been hollowed out and replaced with a stabbing throb of a pierced soul. The arrow dug deep.

His pain in the garden became power in the tomb! His crucifixion on the cross became the defeat of death. His broken body became the resurrection hope for the world.

If we place our hope and future in the hands of our unchanging, unflinching God who never leaves us or forsakes us, we'll find healing and freedom. We'll be able to see something on the other side of all the pain. Something good. Something we know will be so wroth whatever it takes to get well. So instead of running from the pain, we embrace it as necessary. We must feel pain to heal the pain. If we never allow ourselves to feel it, we won't acknowledge it's there.

Pain is the sensation that indicates a transformation is needed.

Make no mistake: being lulled into a false sense of security is worse than going through the process of suffering.

C. S. Lewis said it best: "We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."1

But lying in the critical care unit—an abdomen distending more and more with each passing hour, tubes running in and out of a body refusing to function, and a pain pump set to deliver the highest doses but still not relieving the pain—will make death look quite appealing.

When we think the process of longsuffering is unbearable, we must remember it would be deadly for God to put us up on that solid rock before we are strong, firm, and steadfast. And it would be cruel for Him to require us to sing before we have a song.

We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.

I think C. S. Lewis said it best: "We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."1

Brokenness is what must happen before God can put the pieces back together in the way He can shine through the best.

We must invite God into our pain to help us survive the desperate in-between.