“I give you all the hurt,” I told the Lord early one morning. Then this message came to me. GIVE GOD THE HURT.
I get hurt on a regular basis. Truth, people don’t treat me so well. Oh, yes, some do. But I seem to be a magnet for people who aren’t so good to me. I won’t go into details. Suffice it to say I’m sensitive to begin with, and given the state of this world and the great lack of love in it, given my love for the Lord and for telling the world about Him, given my background and ongoing challenging circumstances, and given I seem to be a good doormat and scapegoat for people who aren’t so kind, I know all about hurt. And to be transparent, I have done plenty of hurting others, plenty of repenting, and strive hard now to love and not hurt people. And praise the God almighty I have found the answer to being hurt.
LOVE. FORGIVE. PRAY. And be sure to GIVE GOD THE HURT. When people hurt us, we are to love them, forgive them, pray to God about the situation including about whether to stay in their lives, whether to confront them, what we may need to change, etc., and to pray for them as the Lord leads us. This we should do! But there is something else we can do that for a long time I really didn’t understand but now do.
GIVE GOD THE HURT. We can pour our hearts out to God. We can come into His presence with our hurting hearts. We can tell Him how we feel. We can place our broken hearts in His hands. We can cry out to Him to heal us. We can ask for and receive His comfort. We can experience and enjoy His love. We can open the Bible and take comfort and find healing in His Word. We can ask Him for wisdom going forward and be thankful to Him when He gives it to us. We can hand our hurt off to Him. Then go on with our lives.
I felt such relief after giving God my hurt. Oh, sure, I felt better. But most importantly of all, God’s greatest commands are to love Him with all our hearts and to love others as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). When we’re consumed with our hurt, we’re consumed with self not the Lord Jesus Christ and others. When we give God our hurt, not only do we experience relief and freedom and healing, but we are best able to follow God’s commands and to be available to the maximum to love Him with all our hearts, to love others as ourselves, and to fulfill His will, His plan, His purpose for our individual lives.
Oh, friend, give God the hurt! Amen!
“Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.” Psalms 62:8 KJV