Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

James 5:13

Don't allow your pain to interfere with your worship of God.

Even if you don't understand why certain things happened or didn’t happen, the Apostle James instructs us to pray in the face of personal suffering. In the context of this verse, the Greek word for which means “to worship continually before the Lord without ceasing, to speak purposefully to Him of surrendering our will for His will” (cf. Matthew 6:10).

 

I understand that when we are suffering, the last thing we want to do is worship. Worship however is not based on circumstances but a choice that we can make in any circumstance. Instead of worrying, start worshipping. It is wiser to trust God and rest on His faithful promises than to wallow in misery. Worship opens the way for God to respond to our sorrows and pains at a level He cannot possibly do when we neglect worship or when we think little of God and what He can do.

God never ordained pain or suffering, but God will use our pain to benefit us and others.

Due to hardship, Ruth was forced to glean in Boaz's field, and it was there that she found favour and became a forebear of David, from whom Christ descended. David would not have composed some of his best psalms if he hadn't been hiding from King Saul in the Cave of Adullam. If Paul hadn't been imprisoned in Rome, he wouldn’t have written all those epistles full of significant and uplifting revelations of the mystery of God's grace in Christ.

Don't let pain rule your life, because it can cloud your view of God with doubt and darkness. However, as you worship, God will often change your heart before you see changes in your circumstances. You will experience a good and loving Father God who will never leave or forsake you. Living out this truth will cause pain to lose its grip on you so that you can step back into the freedom that was always yours in Christ.