When You Are Hurting, He Loves You
Click here to read Part 1
We need to turn the corner a little bit now and think about the times when we are hurting. John 16:33 Says: In this world you will have trouble. Some of the painful things that happen in our lives are unspeakable because they hurt so much. I know that there have been things that have happened in my life, that you could have run over me with a train and I think it would have hurt less.
Those are times when it is so easy to feel like you are outside the grasp of God’s love. After all, your loved ones may be sitting right at your side going through it with you, but you are even numb to your beloved’s care for you. How much harder is it to feel the love of a celestial being that seems to far away during times of real trouble? I just want you to know that when you are hurting like this, your heavenly father absolutely loves you and wants to heal your heart.
Do you remember the story of Jesus and Mary and Martha upon the death of their brother?
Here is what it says in John 11
32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34“Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35Jesus wept. 36Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
Now, we all know that Jesus had the power of resurrection. Was he truly weeping for his friend Lazarus? See, I think he was weeping over the mourning of his beloved friends, Mary and Martha and all the friends that accompanied them. He came upon the scene “Too late to heal” Lazarus, knowing that God intended to show his glory through raising him from the dead. But just because he knew the rest of the story does not mean he did not feel the pain right along with his friends.
See, Jeremiah 29:11 tells us: 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” And beloved, he knows the eventual good that will come to you as a result of the current pain you are in, or in spite of your current painful circumstance. But that does not mean that when you go through pain and through hard circumstances that he does not love you.
Another story in the Bible I can relate to is the story Hannah which you can read in 1 Samuel. I remember vividly the picture of her weeping in the temple. The exact words were: “In bitterness of soul Hanna wept much and prayed to the Lord.” Hannah was so heartsick because she had been unable to conceive a child. A little further in scripture we read that in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel saying: “Because I asked the Lord for Him.” Later she says: I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” The Lord loved Hannah through all her pain and despair, and eventual healing caused her to grow with such spirituality, that later in scripture she says:
“My heart rejoices in the LORD;
in the LORD my horn [a] is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.
2 “There is no one holy [b] like the LORD;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
So, ladies, when you are hurting, I can say with confidence: He Loves You.
