I used to believe that pain was a sign of God’s absence.
If He truly loved me, why would He allow heartbreak, loss, or suffering? The silence of pain can feel deafening, making it easy to believe that God has turned away. Over time, I’ve learned something that changed my perspective. Pain is often where His presence is the closest, but my level of awareness determines if I sense God.
Pain is one of the greatest challenges to our faith. It can shake our confidence in God’s goodness and leave us questioning His plans. When suffering lingers, it’s tempting to wonder, Did I do something wrong? Has God forgotten me?
Question. What if pain isn’t a punishment? What if, instead, it’s an invitation?
Pain has the power to push us away from God or pull us closer to Him. The difference is how we choose to walk through it. The Bible doesn’t shy away from suffering. In fact, Jesus Himself said: “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” — John 15:2
Pruning is painful, but it’s purposeful. A gardener doesn’t cut away branches to destroy the tree, but to make it stronger. The same is true for us. Psalm 34:18 reminds us: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” God doesn’t ignore our pain. He enters into it with us. Romans 8:28 reassures us: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Even when we don’t understand our suffering, we can trust that God is weaving something greater together. If pain is where God meets us, how do we lean into His presence instead of pulling away?
Recognize the Pruning Process
Instead of seeing pain as punishment, ask: What is God refining in me?
Trust that what feels like a loss might actually be preparation for greater fruitfulness.
Invite the Holy Spirit into Your Pain.
Jesus calls the Holy Spirit our Comforter (John 14:26).
Speak honestly with God. He isn’t afraid of your doubts, feelings, or questions.
Shift from Asking “Why?” to “What Gold is Here?”
Instead of focusing on why this happened, ask: What is God teaching me in this season?
Pain can be a doorway to deeper faith when we allow God to shape us through it.
I remember a season where I felt completely abandoned by God. I was praying, reading my Bible, and yet nothing seemed to change. I kept asking, God, where are You? It wasn’t until I stopped trying to avoid the pain and simply surrendered to Him that I began to sense His presence. He hadn’t left me. He was working all along. And now, looking back, I see how that season shaped me in ways I never could have imagined.
What if your pain isn’t proof of God’s absence, but an invitation into His presence? Take a moment today to invite the Holy Spirit into the places that hurt. Ask Him to reveal what He is doing, even if you can’t see it yet.
Closing Prayer
Lord, I don’t always understand my pain, but I trust that You are working through it. Help me to lean on Your Spirit, to be refined by Your pruning, and to find peace in Your presence. Let me see You in the hard places and trust that You are near. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Emotions are not a design flaw. They are part of God’s good creation. They are not sinful in themselves, even when they feel intense or inconvenient. Jesus, fully God and fully man, felt the full range. Luke tells us He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit with joy that overflowed. John records the shortest verse in Scripture, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), reminding us that sorrow has a place in holy ground. Mark shows us His righteous anger as He looked around at hardened hearts with grief mixed in (Mark 3:5). Matthew lets us overhear His deep distress in Gethsemane when He said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). Over and over again, we see compassion move Him toward people, not away from them. If Jesus felt emotions without sinning, we need to stop labeling emotions themselves as the problem.
To be unhindered is not to have a flawless plan or a perfectly curated life. It is to clear away the distractions that keep us from being faithful right where we are. It is to remember that our identity is in Christ, not in comparison, not in productivity, not in striving. And because God is our source, we are not dependent on systems that exhaust us. We lean into the Holy Spirit who sustains us. Steward It Well
And as we sit here in 2026, I think many of us aren’t tangled up in obvious sin and rebellion. We’re actually exhausted by accumulation. Expectations. Distractions. Comparisons. The pressure to do more and be more, even when God hasn’t asked us to.
That’s why the Word of the Year, Unhindered, is so timely and fitting.
We’ve got to get more honest about what we’re carrying. We often assume that spiritual growth and maturity are tied to adding more and increase, but here in Hebrews, we see the opposite. We see release. Casting things off. Laying things aside. Surrender.
It’s an invitation to reflection. What has slowly attached itself to us? What fills our days and dulls our discernment? What keeps us busy, but lacking real fruit?
To wait well is to lean in when we want to pull back. It’s to light our lamps with trust and faithfulness. It’s to keep our hearts open, our hands obedient, and our eyes on the horizon.
So if you’re in a waiting season right now, whether it’s for healing, direction, provision, or just a sense of peace, take heart.
