By Michelle Bengtson
We all experience pain—physical, emotional, relational, financial, or spiritual.
Words and actions from our past, whether our own or others’, often leave wounds that fuel guilt, shame, or regret.
Jesus warned us that trials would come, but we choose whether pain makes us bitter or better. Pain is like a storm: it arrives unexpectedly, traps us beneath its weight, and leaves us wondering how long it will last.
Yet because we serve a God of redemption, even our painful past can bear unexpected gifts. Joseph explained to his brothers that what the enemy had intended for evil, God intended for good” (Genesis 50:20).
God never wastes our pain. Instead of hiding our scars in shame, what if we considered them gifts?
1. Pain Teaches Us Something Is Wrong
Pain is unpleasant, but it alerts us to danger—whether an injury, broken relationship, financial strain, or spiritual misalignment. Without it, we would walk unaware into harm. Pain calls us to pause, notice, and address what’s off course.
2. Pain Reveals Our Dependence on God
Like the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5), we often try everything in our own strength before finally turning to God. She found healing only when she reached out to Jesus in faith.
Our painful trials remind us that dependence on God is not weakness, but the very pathway to His strength.
3. Pain Deepens Our Walk with God
In suffering, we ask hard questions: Is God good? Can He be trusted? God welcomes our honest cries.
Often, His aim is less about giving us answers and more about drawing us into deeper intimacy with Him. Even if pain only teaches us to know Him more fully, we are blessed.
4. Pain Teaches Perseverance
Easy seasons don’t require perseverance, but trials do. James reminds us that those who persevere are blessed (James 5:11). Paul declared that suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3–4).
Our perseverance also encourages others watching from the sidelines to cling to hope in Christ.
5. Pain Confirms God’s Goodness and Faithfulness
Faith trusts God’s character even when circumstances tempt us to doubt. Our scars bear witness that He brought us through before and will again.
God’s faithfulness isn’t shown by sparing us hardship but by walking with us through it. Looking back, we see His hand in the details, redeeming even the darkest valleys.
6. Pain Gives Us Strength Beyond Ourselves
Scars are proof that, in Christ, we are stronger than what tried to destroy us. On our own we feel weak, but that places us in perfect position to experience God’s strength, courage, and refuge.
Pain teaches us surrender, and surrender proves God in us is greater than anything against us.
7. Pain Proves We Are Overcomers in Christ
Overcoming doesn’t always look like victory laps—it’s often simply putting one foot in front of the other.
Jesus, in His own agony, surrendered to His Father’s will. His death and resurrection secured the victory we could never win ourselves. As long as we cling to Him, we are overcomers too.
8. Pain Equips Us to Comfort Others
Paul reminds us that God comforts us so we can comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:4). As a neuropsychologist, I once treated depression with head knowledge, but after walking through depression myself, I could enter my patients’ pain with empathy.
Your scars uniquely qualify you to walk with others in theirs. My own journey—through deformity, miscarriage, depression, anxiety, cancer, caregiving, empty nesting, and chronic pain—has prepared me to minister from compassion rather than theory.
Your past does the same. God uses your pain not only for your growth but also as a lifeline for others.
9. Pain Reveals God’s Redemptive Plan
On the far side of suffering, perspective shows us that God was weaving redemption into every detail.
Every wound, every scar, every injustice—He works it all for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). We can trust His sovereignty, even when we wrestle, doubt, or question our worth.
Friend, if you’re walking through pain today, take heart: God sees you. He is with you. He will use your suffering for good and for His glory in His perfect way and time.
Our painful past is never wasted—it is sacred, just as Jesus’s scars were. Our painful past becomes the very soil from which God grows redemption, hope, and a sacred purpose.
