How Do I Hear From God? | Through Pain

What if the difference between growing bitter and growing better through pain has nothing to do with how much we suffer or what kind of suffering we face? The answer is both simple and profound: the determining factor is whether we can hear the voice of God in the midst of our pain.

Drawing from 1 Peter, we are reminded that fiery trials are not strange or unexpected interruptions to the life of faith -- they are woven into the very fabric of living in a broken world. The Bible is filled with heroes who were not heroic because they avoided suffering, but because they remained faithful inside of it. From Adam and Eve to Ruth to Elijah to Paul, the catalog of pain represented in Scripture is staggering in its breadth and honesty. We are not alone, and we never have been.

We're called to resist the lie that our pain is unique or isolating, and instead to bring our raw, honest, unmasked suffering directly to God -- because it is in that honesty that the signal between us and Him becomes clearest, and His voice of compassion and comfort becomes most audible.