Does God Care That I’m Hurting?
Here I am again, crying out from the bathroom floor. Eyes red, body shaking, wondering how it came to this and where to go from here.
“God, can you see me?”
“Why is this happening?”
“What do you want me to do?”
Through the sobs I feel His presence come and hear His tender voice, “Yes, My child. I know it hurts, I know your heart is broken, but I am here, and I will guide you through this.”
Once again, I am assured of His love, reminded He has a plan, and my part is to trust and pray. He knows what He’s doing. I’m grateful I don’t need to know the plan, but it’s still hard to fully trust Him instead of reacting.
He reminds me I’m still growing, still learning, and that He has always been patient with me. I’m so grateful for that. I know often times I did not deserve it. This gentle nudge of a reminder helps me to be patient with my child. All those times God chose not to give up on me and instead offered grace and mercy, of course He will offer the same to my child.
The pain hurts Him too. I often feel He is sad with Me, His heart also breaking even though He knows the outcome, He knows My child will return. He whispers that my responsibility is to show love and grace, His job is the conviction of sin. He’s so good at His role. We pray for our fallen children and He pursues them relentlessly, winning them over with His goodness and mercy. He gets to the heart of the issue, pulling it out by the root. My nagging doesn’t compare, in fact it would get in the way.
In this desert season He has revealed several truths to me. I would like to share a couple of them with you. My prayer is that it will bring you hope and comfort as well.
#1 He not only notices that I’m hurting, but He cares so deeply about my pain that He catches every tear and stores it in His bottle. In fact, while I was out shopping one day, He told me to purchase this pretty blue bottle and keep it on my desk as a constant reminder that He sees my pain and is deeply moved by it. This was a new revelation for me. I did some research and sure enough there is a passage in Psalms telling us about this.
Psalms 56:8, 9, 11, “You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me. In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
How amazing is our God! He is not distant, He is right there with us, in the mess and in the pain. He
loves us. We are His children and just like good earthly parents, when His children hurt, He hurts too.
#2 Worship. Worship is the key to our victory. It puts our heart into alignment with God’s, and opens the flood gates for His victory to take place.
He reminded me of the most wonderful verse in Isaiah 59.
Isaiah 59:19, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”
First of all, the word for “flood” used here is the word “nahar” in Hebrew. Nahar translates to “a river”. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as a river in the Bible.
Second, a lot of scholars believe that there should be a comma after the word “enemy” in the text.
And thirdly, the word used here for “standard” is “nuwc” in Hebrew. This word is translated as “to make flee”.
So, putting all this together, the verse is saying:
“When the enemy shall come in, like a river the Spirit of God will make him flee.”
And if that wasn’t amazing enough, as the chapter continues, verse 21 says:
“As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”
Wow! This is a verse that I need to put on my prayer board. I need to be reminded of this one daily.
I’ll leave you with these final thoughts:
God never intended for us to go through these hard times alone. It’s human nature to retreat into our safe place when we’re faced with a battle, and try to fight it on our own, but God’s design for us includes a spiritual family. We shouldn’t face life’s troubles alone. We become better spiritual warriors when we have the support of others.
I encourage you to get involved in a local Bible believing church. You need them and they need you.
How are you doing in your desert season?
What has God revealed to you?
How can you use what He has shown you to help others in similar situations?
Join our women’s group on Facebook. My desire is to offer a safe place for women to connect with other believers who want to support each other through prayer as we travel through life’s desert seasons.