Pain Can Make You Better or Bitter—It’s Your Choice

When people go through tragedy and disaster and pain, some turn to God. But others turn away from God—even when he’s offering the comfort and power they need to make it through a difficult time.

How pain affects you depends on how you choose to respond to it. Are you going to let that experience make you bitter, or are you going to turn to God—and let the pain make you better?

Jesus didn’t come to explain away your pain. He came to share your pain.

That’s right—he enters into your pain. He is a God who suffers with you and walks with you through whatever you are going through, whether it’s emotional, physical, relational, or spiritual.

Some Christians think that it’s never God’s will for you to suffer and that if you have any pain in your life, it means you don’t have enough faith.

They are not telling you the truth. Sometimes you’re just going to suffer. Sometimes you’re going to have pain that is part of God’s will. The Bible says, “So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you” (1 Peter 4:19 NLT). 

Pain is inevitable. It’s a part of life, even for a Christian. The choice you get to make involves whether or not you will waste your hurt. You can choose whether it will make you bitter or better.

Maybe you are experiencing pain right now. If so, you can say this to God: “Are you using this pain to guide me in a new direction? Are you using this pain to spur me into action? Are you using this pain to show me what I need to work on? Are you using this pain to guard me from something more harmful? Are you using this pain to grow me and make me more like you? Thank you that you will never waste my pain. Please help me trust you as I follow you in faith.”

Let whatever pain you’re going through right now guide you into the caring arms of Jesus Christ.