Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you.  Psalm 55:22

Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.   Matthew 11:28

Living in emotional pain of any kind can be very discouraging. 

Obviously, when one goes through a sad time, such as a death of a loved one, a divorce, loss of a job one loves, death of a beloved pet, a major sickness, etc., there will be a season of troubled emotions.  That is to be expected.  What is not to be expected is to find oneself stuck in that emotional pain.  However, many people are stuck, and no matter what they try to do to unstick themselves, they remain in the pain.  Soon they find their lives are on hold because the pain is all-consuming.

I was seriously talking to God about this one day during a time when I was mired in some long-standing residual pain.  He told me, clearly, “Give Me the pain!”  Now, I have often heard we are to surrender our pain to Him; we are to lay it all down at the foot of the cross; or, add any useless platitude that has been thrown at you which doesn’t help one iota!  We need to know:  what does it mean?  What does ‘giving Him the pain’ look like in real life?  Certainly, we cannot wrap it up in a pretty ribbon.  We cannot literally rip our hearts out of our chests and lay them on the altar. 

I ended up telling God, “I must be dense, Lord, because I just don’t get it.  I don’t understand how I am to give the pain to you.”  Besides, haven’t I tried to do that a zillion times already?  I further told Him, “Lord, the pain is so entwined in the fibers of my inner being.  I wouldn’t have a clue how to unravel it to give it to you.”

God spoke to me again, saying, “The pain that causes paralysis and grief has to go.  Give it to Me.  The other pain, the pain that serves to motivate you and propels you to action? Let it do its work.”  Hmmmmm.  Here I was given a specific directive from the Lord and I was still puzzled.  “HOW??” I cried.

After a few moments, it was strongly impressed upon me that I was to live as if I was pain-free!  What does a person who has no pain do?  What would they do today?  Tomorrow?  Next week?  A healthy, pain-free person would live each day full of joy, energy, fun and happiness….. they would DO!  They would take life by the tail and run with it!

So, how do you do it?  You make a choice.  You purpose in your heart to live pain-free by faith.  You step out in faith and He meets you there.  When the pain starts to suck you under again, you speak to it saying, “No!  I reject you pain in Jesus’ Name!  I live pain-free!”  Refuse to give into it again.  You have the victory, as always – if you persevere!