“God never allows pain without a purpose in the lives of His children. He never allows Satan, nor circumstances, nor any ill-intending person to afflict us unless He uses that affliction for our good. God never wastes pain…Regardless of the source of our pain, we must accept that God knows, God loves and God is at work” (Jerry Bridges, Charles Stanley)
“God uses the desert of the soul—our suffering and difficulties, our pain, our dark nights (call them what you will)—to form us, to make us beautiful souls. He redeems what we might deem our living hells, if we allow Him.” (Marlena Graves)
“I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.” (Charles Spurgeon)
“In Jesus Christ, God experienced the greatest depths of pain. Therefore, though Christianity does not provide the reason for each experience of pain, it provides deep resources for actually facing suffering with hope and courage rather than bitterness and despair.” (Pastor Timothy Keller)
“When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.” (Henri Nouwen)
“All the pain in the world comes from sin and selfishness. And if we do not tackle sin and selfishness, we just tackle symptoms. We can pass the best laws in the world, we can attack all the structures we like, but if we have not changed the hearts of people, what we have done is like taking a lunatic and tying him up.” (Anthony De Mello)
“It would certainly be most dangerous to assume that any given pain was penal. I believe that all pain is contrary to God’s will, absolutely but not relatively. When I am taking a thorn out of my own finger (or a child’s finger) the pain is “absolutely” contrary to my will; i.e. if I could have chosen a situation without pain I would have done so. But I do will what caused the pain, relatively to the given situation; i.e. granted the thorn I prefer the pain to leaving the thorn where it is.” (C. S. Lewis)
“There are two types of pain in this world: pain that hurts you, and pain that changes you…God does not want us to simply forget the pain of the past. He wants us to be fruitful in the land of our suffering! Use it for good. Minister to others. Plant seeds of hope." (Epic Women, Sharon Jaynes)
“Our suffering can make us much more sensitive to the servants of God [others]. People who have known pain are able to reach out with compassion to others who hurt. If you have suffered ask God how your experience can be used to help others.” (Life Application Study Bible, Hebrews 2:10)
“The moments in our lives of deep pain offer us unique opportunities to hear vital truths.” (Father Barnabas Powell)
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