When you go through deep waters, I will be with you, when you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.  Isaiah 43:2

Sometimes, you have to go through something to get past it.

Whether it’s the pain of loss, the pain of childbirth or the pain after knee replacement surgery, there’s only one way to go and that’s through the pain. In contrast to religions or philosophy, pain is addressed by Christianity in its offer of a suffering Savior. The Bible says that Jesus was “a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief” (Isaiah 53:3).

Elisabeth Eliott was a woman who lost one husband to murder and another to cancer.  Known for her writing on suffering, she pointed out that “You can’t get to tomorrow morning without going through tonight. The child cannot be born without going through the straight and narrow gate which is the birth passage and the mother can’t give life to the child without suffering.”[1]

To the person in pain, God says, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you, when you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown” (Isaiah 43:2).  This is deeply assuring and yet pain hurts. It’s overwhelming. 

“People sometimes ask me, “How did you get rid of your feelings?” Eliott said. “I tell them I didn’t get rid of them. I offer them to God, and I have to offer them again, and again, and again.”[2]  Are you passing thru some pain today?

There is a point that pain will be past. Scripture promises, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

[1] There’s no coming to life without pain: An interview with Elisabeth Elliot by Elisabeth Elliot. Ligonier Ministries. (1989, February 1). Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/theres-no-coming-life-without-pain-interview-elisabeth-elliot

[2] Ibid.