Painful emotions such as fear, disappointment, betrayal, rejection, loss, and regret can drive us to retreat. We may try to avoid feeling painful emotions by numbing with alcohol, drugs, food, or distracting ourselves with external stimuli like TV or social media. More common is deflecting pain through blaming and anger which selfishly puts all the responsibility of one’s feelings on another person.
Avoiding feeling painful emotions only prolongs our suffering. “Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.” Psalms 126:5 NIV, tells us that when we give ourselves permission to process painful emotions we will receive relief. It is a promise of healing.
We have a gentle and kind Savior who has personally suffered every painful emotion you and I experience. Jesus knows the weight of pain and comes to us with compassion, sympathy, and support, taking our hand and lovingly enduring with us. He feels what we feel, taking it upon himself and carrying it for us.
As we allow ourselves to cry, lament, mourn, and grieve, we are cared for and ministered to by our Savior as our pain is released and met with relief. That relief is like a billowing cloud, weightlessness, an exhale, that ascends to heaven as our tears are captured and cherished as sweet sacrifices by the Father.
“You’ve kept track of all my wandering and my weeping. You’ve stored my many tears in your bottle—not one will be lost. For they are all recorded in your book of remembrance.” Psalm 56:8-9 TPT.
The Holy Spirit fills us with peace and joy, comforting us with reassurance and renewing us with strength. In this processing of pain, we learn who our Savior is, who we are to him, and reap freedom’s victory. We grow in our faith, mature in our knowledge, and gain the wisdom of God to pass on to others. Jesus gives us a testimony, a story to share, that it is okay to feel – that we will be okay. We go from pain to praise.
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