By Chris WittsTuesday 17 Sep 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
Remember your first bike ride? Maybe you got a skinned knee and asked your mother to kiss it and make it well. Wouldn’t it be great if a mother’s kiss could heal all the hurts of life?
Let’s face it. Life hurts. Most people occasionally experience such severe personal pain that they think they are unique, that nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. It’s true that pain is a universal experience. Some pain is physical, the result of injury or illness. Some pain is emotional, imposed by friends and foes or rising from our fears or frustrations.
Whether the hurt is real or imagined, it still hurts and usually is associated with some loss. There are two types of people in the world: those that are wounded, and those who will be hurt.
We all get hurt in life
All of us experience adversity at some point. It seems to me that there are many hurting people in our communities today. It’s not like a physical wound you can see but it’s there just the same, hidden from view. They won’t talk about it usually unless you’re a trusted and caring friend.
We often wonder why life is so difficult, why things hurt so badly. The traumas from the hurts we experience in life often leave us feeling vulnerable and defenceless. I know people who feel they have nowhere to turn. Hurts can affect our self-esteem, sense of worth, our confidence, and even our self-respect. Because of the different hurts we experience we may find ourselves battling with anger, bitterness, hatred and even jealousy—emotions too numerous to mention may stir up within us. Has that been your experience?
We all get hurt in this process called life. Life has no rewind like a DVD player. We cannot skip the parts of life that are unpleasant. We are involved in the entire process. Even when life seems to be going our way and everything is pleasant and smooth, we still do not know what the future will bring.
Solomon said so in Proverbs 27:1 (NLT): “Don’t brag about tomorrow! Each day brings its own surprises.” We don’t know really what events today will bring into our lives. Author J.K.Rowling wrote in The Tales of Beedle the Bard that “To hurt is as human as to breathe.”
The Christian faith has so much to help here. Because when we believe in a loving God, we can start to pick up the pieces of our lives, and not be bogged down by the hurts. David prayed to God in Psalm 9:10 (NLT):
Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you.
We can trust God—even when life hurts
There’s an excellent book by Jerry Bridges called Trusting God Even When Life Hurts. Bridges tackles some big and important questions:
- How are we to approach the hurdles life throws our way?
- How can we trust God in spite of difficult circumstances?
- How are we to trust him even when life hurts?
He says that God knows what he is doing, and we can trust him even in dark days. Why? Because God is sovereign, he is infinite in wisdom and love. He knows best even when we can’t work it out.
Can you somehow see your hurt through the eyes of faith and trust in God?
“God’s there, listening for all who pray, for all who pray and mean it.” Psalm 145:18 (MSG)
Psalm 34:18 (NLT) says,
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
An old steel bridge was built many years ago. It connected two towns together, and both towns were very pleased with the new steel structure. Thirty years went by, and everyone took the bridge for granted. Rust started on the underside of the bridge. More years passed by, and the rust continued to grow. One day a car drove over the bridge, and the structure broke. Problems in our life are like that bridge. They go unchecked until they finally leave us helpless. It’s not helpful to ignore the hurts but with God’s help, we are never helpless.
Psalm 103:13-14 (ASV) reads:
Like as a father pitieth his children,
So Jehovah pitieth them that fear him.
For he knoweth our frame;
He remembereth that we are dust.
Finally, God is a loving Father, who does not want you to live in a spirit of confusion, not knowing what to do or say next. We see this in 1 Corinthians 14:33 (KJV): “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”