Pain....

The older I get the more pain I seem to experience in this life.  Whether it be a broken relationship, a betrayal, a loss or a disappointment, we all experience pain.

To be quite frank, pain stinks.

Sometimes its that gnawing feeling of hopelessness in your gut.  Other times it's that overwhelming sense of despair or depression that you just can't seem to shake.  It might come in waves, it might come when you least expect it or when your day was actually going pretty good, but there it is again, pain.

So, what do we do with pain?

Well, I suppose we could medicate it.  Lots of people try that method, masking our pain with alcohol, popularity, success, sex, or pills.  You name it.  Yet, pain still lingers.  It's still there in the mornings when we wake up, even though the night before for a brief moment it was sucked away in a sea of our own self-medication.

I've found that in my deepest times of pain, if I look towards a true healer then I can be made well.  In a strange way I become thankful for the pain, because it caused me to depend upon a source of wholeness and healing.  As I drink from rivers of life in the midst of despairing loss my heart is at peace.

Peace.

I want peace.

Jesus says, "come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest"- Matthew 11:28

Rest.

The opposite of struggling, and worried.  Rest for your wounded heart and wholeness for your soul so discouraged and hurting by the pain you've experienced.  Self-medication just doesn't seem to cut it.   Yet, Jesus says, to lay it down, all of our pain, struggles, worries, disappointments and shortcomings before His feet and He will bring rest.

Jesus came so that you might be set free.  Come to the healer today and be made well.  He has the power to make all things, even your wounded heart, brand new.

Stop rebelling, turn around, admit that you've been doing it all wrong and cry out to the healer, place all your sin and failures before Him and be set free.

"Jesus said, I came that they may have life and have it to the full"- John 10:10

"Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you shall be saved"- Romans 10:9