Bible Text: John 9:3, 2 Corinthians 1:9 | Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words |

When you’re really hurting–whether from a broken body, a broken relationship, or a broken heart, the question that immediately comes to mind is “Why? Why did this happen to me?” Three examples in the Bible give us three answers to that puzzling question.

The first answer is that pain comes because of sin. In Jeremiah 13, the Bible says, “And if you ask yourself, ‘Why has this happened to me?’– it is because of your many sins.” When you see bad things happen to someone who is really evil, you quickly see the connection between cause and effect. Sometimes we’re not so quick to see the connection in ourselves.

But another reason God allows pain is so that He will be praised. Does that seem strange to you? Just before Jesus healed a blind man, the religious leaders asked who had sinned that the man had been born blind. Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:3). God may want you to be a showcase of His supernatural power.

The third example is the one that especially speaks me. Paul said that painful experiences happen to us, quote, “that we might not rely on ourselves but on God” (2 Corinthians 1:9). Sometimes when I come up against a difficult situation, I realize “I can’t fix this! I really need God’s help!” There’s nothing like an impossible situation to make me realize how helpless I really am.

So if right now you are dealing with a painful problem, God may be saying, “Excuse Me, but there’s sin here that we need to talk about.” Or maybe He’s going to send such a miraculous solution that all you can say is, “Praise the Lord!” Or maybe He’s helping you realize how totally dependent you are on Him—and how totally dependable He is. Just listen!