What to Do When You’re In a World of Pain

RECALLING a time in my life when I did not know up from down, nor east from west, as far as my thinking and feeling were concerned, I imagined the need for advice. There are times in life when we really do feel we’re coming to an end of all things.

When we get to a state of asking, “What’s happening to me,” and “This is both lonely and frightening,” we do need help from the Divine. We call for that help by prayer and by prayer we’re heard.

The following five points highlight positive action that can be taken:

1.     Shelter in the security and protection of God: Psalm 91 is the perennial sonnet repealing fear in the faith of the assurance of God. No harm comes to those who dwell in and rest in the Lord. Because we love him, God will rescue us; in his time and way. But faith enough to love God for who he is will ensure we are delivered. In the meantime, and always, we have the security and protection of God.

2.     Cry out for help by actually crying: Psalm 142 is a psalm David prayed and wrote representing his fear when he hid in the cave. When we are asking God to deliver us from great turmoil we should ask expecting to be answered, but not expecting to be answered how and when we would like. Instead, we should give full vent to our sadness and fear, within safe bounds.

3.     Who will take care of me when I cannot care for myself? As we gently accede to the grace of God when we are so feeble as to have no protection for ourselves, we bunker down into God’s safety. Such a feeling is very comforting. Time to read Psalm 112.

4.     What am I to do when I’m afraid? Psalm 56 reads of dichotomies between suffering that causes fear and praise and trust which cause faith. When we’re afraid, it really does pay to sit down and open that Bible of ours. Psalm 56 shall surely speak to us — deliverance from darkness.

5.     What do I do when my world is closing in on me? Psalm 31 is saved for desperate times, even as it vacillates between faith and doubt. When our eyes grow weak with sorrow, and our lives are consumed by anguish, and weakness abounds, and the people we felt we could rely on we can’t, then we feel worthless like broken pottery. But faith is possible, and faith is the only way to life. God is teaching us to rely on him more and more consistently.

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When our world is full of pain, pain is the full representation of our world. We can see no better way than suffer. But God’s Word takes us out of that thinking.

God’s Word is the ally of faith in fear, peace in pain, and hope in hell.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.