Seeing God in Our Pain

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.” (Psalm 34:15 NIV).

Prayer is one of the most misunderstood discipline in the Christian life. No wonder: prayer connects us to God, prayer unleashes God’s power, prayer does change things and the great enemy of our soul knows that, so he’s sought to pull the proverbial rug from under us and destroy our belief in the one thing that ultimately defeats him. Samuel Chadwick was right, “The one concern of the devil is to keep saints from prayer. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”

With this in mind look again at the promise of our text: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.” The Message translates our verse, “God keeps an eye on his friends, his ears pick up every moan and groan.” Some of you reading this thought may doubt that promise. You’ve been through a lot. Where was God during your ordeal? Where is He now? Where is the promised peace, the promised hope, the promised joy? The promise of Psalm 34:15 seems hollow; empty to you. Well, let’s look at it for a minute.

Years ago I had the experience of being in a hospital emergency room when a young boy was brought in for treatment. The scene sticks vividly in my mind even today. He needed stitches to close his wound. The doctors began preparations by sending his anxious mother from the room. She stood just outside the door where she could hear all that was going on. As the doctors began their work, the screams of that child was heart-rending for me, I can only guess at what his mother must have been feeling. He kept calling for his mother. Between sobs, and screams, that little voice pleaded, “Mom! Mom! Where are you? They’re killing me! Mom! Mom!”

I watched that mother, tears streaming down her cheeks. The more her boy cried, the more perfuse her tears became. Suddenly, the procedure was over. The doctor called for the mother to return to comfort her son. She wiped away her tears, put on her best smile (though I knew she herself was dying inside), and entered that room. I’ll never forget that pitiful little voice level the stinging accusation, “Mom, they hurt me and you let them!” And the loving response of that mother, “I know, honey. I know.”

We may not always see God in our pain, but we can be sure of this, He always sees us! Like that mother outside the emergency room door, “God keeps an eye on his friends, his ears pick up every moan and groan.” And like that mother, He doesn’t always rush in and stop the procedure because the Infinite Mind of the Universe knows that what we are going through is just what we need if we are going to get better. Be assured today: His eye is upon you.