Christianity is a radical faith which believes in the God who knows and understands our sufferings because He became one of us. Jesus can relate to every pain we could ever experience: poverty, homelessness, difficult life changes, betrayal, being misunderstood, and even family drama. Like Jesus, we are called to be honest about our sufferings because it is in the midst of adversity that others are able to relate to us the most. God uses life’s challenges in two main ways: to reflect areas in our lives where we can be sanctified, and to be a reflection for others in how we surrender. As Christians, we should not only be careful to avoid the wide path of sin, but we must also warn others not to go down that path by sharing the truth of the gospel—that Jesus already paid the ultimate price in our place so we wouldn’t have to. While God experienced our pain in life, it is not His will that we should experience the eternal payment of sin.  

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As we bring purpose to the pain it gives us the power to prevail

1. God Knows Our Humanity

God himself came into this world wrapped in flesh, truly divine yet representative of our nature and form. He walked through what we walk through and is sympathetic towards our humanity. Although Jesus experienced poverty, temptation, rejection and betrayal, for our sakes, throughout His life on earth He never sinned. He became the ultimate propitiation for our sins, offering the hope of salvation and mediation on our behalf.

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“The High Priest of ours understands our weakness, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4: 15

2. Respond

‍Knowing the truth of who Jesus is and what He has done for us, we get to the point where we have to decide who He is in our lives.  We can choose to walk on to the path of destruction or we can choose to run into his loving arms. By fixing our eyes on Jesus, our struggles gain meaning. We all have scars from the batterings of life’s storms and our own mistakes. Yet, Jesus paid the price for all of our past, healing not just our scars but also the crisis inside our hearts. As we keep running towards Him, all we have to do is hold fast, get close and receive his daily mercies.

‍“To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” - Colossians 1:27 27

Our past is not in charge of our future; God has already given us the mercy we need to move forward. Jesus, being all man and all God, sympathizes with us and understands our pain and struggles. Jesus sits at the right hand of God and is our mediator. Even in our lowest and darkest moments, we find that through Jesus there is purpose in our sighs and groans; He sticks closer to us than a brother. When we hold fast and get close, Jesus brings us comfort and delivers us from the pressures and burdens we carry.