The Truth About Our Pain and Problems

• Each lesson learned and each piece of training received can only be accomplished through a process that is most commonly referred to as “problems”. So, is it learning that we don’t like to experience? Maybe we would rather be part of a group of people that don’t need to face this “problem”? That would be those who are severely mentally handicapped.
• Problems are a privilege. They are intended to be stepping stones to greatness, if we allow them to be.
• You can’t find one miracle in the Old or New Testament that did not begin with a problem! So, therefore, if you have a problem, the good news tonight is, you are a candidate for a miracle! Now, if you have no problem, too bad. If you have no problem, you get no miracle! –John C. Maxwell
• God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way. –C. S. Lewis
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The sky is dark; the night is cold;
But God hath pledged my hand to hold.
The trial’s great, the valley low;
But God will show the way to go.

He has not planned an easy path,
But He indeed would save from wrath.
He loves me, yes, enough, I know,
That He has planned this way I go.

His best seems hard, but time will prove
T’ward me His everlasting love.
If I look up, He’ll show His face —
Such love can never be replaced!

If through the storm I hold His hand,
Unmoved from Him I’ll safely stand;
Then land my ship on heaven’s shore,
And rest eternally secure!

Here sorrows crush my tender heart,
And here my dreams are pulled apart;
But up in heav’n I’ll know no grief —
There I shall find a great relief!

The path’s still rough, the way still hard,
But by God’s grace my heart I’ll guard;
For God has planned for me the best,
So in His will I now shall rest.
–Susan M. Stalter

• God loves us humans, and it greatly pains Him to watch folks go through vast amounts of suffering that traces its origin back to the bad choices they had made for the sake of having their own way. These people are painfully trekking through life without the unlimited benefits God would freely hand out to them if they would only seek His advice. Therefore, after humanity corrupted itself, God introduced natural disasters and diseases as a dramatic way of getting our attention. He uses these for our good to bring us to the end of our rope, so to speak, that we might realize that depending on Him is our only hope. –M. Z. Hurst
• Many of our problems come from wanting our own way and many more come from having it. –M. Z. Hurst
• When we complain we are underestimating God and His divine plan for us and are only increasing our problems. –M. Z. Hurst
• Color is the pain of light. –Goethe When light passes through a prism, it’s torn to pieces as colorful shards scatter in every direction. –Wurmbrand
• The more pain we endure, with a good attitude, the more magnificent our character will become.
• Suffering inflicted on us by the will of God does not contradict love. It is one of its methods. –Sabina Wurmbrand
• Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties. –Spurgeon
• We could never learn to be patient if there were only joys in this world. –Helen Keller (not word for word)
• If it were not for the darkness we would never see the sunrise. If it were not for the rocks the creek would lose its song.
• The difficult times are the best teachers.
• The difference between try and triumph is set extra umph you put into it.
• Problems, that may only last a moment, can permanently change us for God’s glory.
• We are like a lump of clay in God’s hands. Many of our problems are those moments when God is picking a stone, or some form of impurity out of his “clay pot”.
• It’s like the old story of the farmer who smacked his stubborn mule with a 2×4. As the farmer was swinging from his heels, a passerby city-slicker asked, “Why are you beating your own mule?” The farmer replied, “It’s the only way I can get his attention.” And from time to time, God may have to treat you like that farmer treated his mule. During these tough times, it may feel like the Father has given you a whack on the side of the head, when, in reality, your own choices have caused the pain. –Dr. Dennis Swanberg
• It is a remarkable thing that some of the most optimistic and enthusiastic people you will meet are those who have been through intense suffering. –Warren Wiersbe
• Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you. –Viktor E. Frankl
• Stop tormenting yourself by living the pain over and over. Good people go through terrible things, but wise people know when and how to let it go. –Bryant Mcgell
• Without rain nothing grows, learn to brace the storms of life.
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If you pray when you’re in trouble
And you pray when you’re in pain’
You will rise above the rubble
And destroy worry’s chain.
Your serenity will double
And new courage you will gain.
–M. Z. Hurst

• Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less calendars, wish for more wisdom. –Unknown
• The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.
• We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God. –Dwight L. Moody
• Failure is the Condiment that gives success its flavor. –Truman Capote
• He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. –Friedrich Nietzsche
• When I’m complaining, worried, and upset I fail to see that I’m not maintaining my attention on Jesus. –Steve Simms
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Camping at a closed door can cause you to miss out on many open doors.
A closed door often means keep going, but in a different direction.
Don’t let a closed door distract you from the rest of reality and the opportunities around you.
When life gives you a closed door, there are often a lot of lemons behind it.
When a door closes, you don’t know what was behind it that you’ve been kept safe from.
When a door is closed for good, just maybe, it’s for your good.
Closed doors make us humble and eventually patient, and cause us to look to God.
Closed doors can keep us out of the abyss of feeling amiss where we don’t belong.
Closed doors often open the way for you to stay in God’s will.
Closed doors are frequently God’s protection and direction.
Pride gets mad at closed doors humility embraces Christ’s invitation to inner peace.
–Steve Simms

Learn to receive wisdom from your wounds
And you’ll soon begin to sing happy tunes.
–Steve Simms

• I am not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship. –Louisa May Alcott
• View the problem as an opportunity to grow. –J. Willard Marriott