Being ignored hurts. Knowing someone is harboring bitterness, anger, and resentment towards you hurts. Feeling like there’s nothing you can do to mend the brokenness in a relationship that you have cherished your whole life hurts. It may be something you caused and have asked forgiveness for, it may be a big misunderstanding, or it could be circumstances that were out of your control. But see, that’s where the two words that can change your entire life come in…

But, Jesus.

For my language-arts-teaching husband, that’s probably not even considered a complete sentence. But, when you understand what it means, all the grammatical rules you’ve ever learned go out the window. You see, we don’t deserve anything. The Bible tells us that apart from Jesus, there is no good thing (Psalm 16:2). We definitely don’t deserve forgiveness from our sins, we don’t deserve the free gift of salvation, and we don’t deserve the selflessness of God to send His only Son to die in our place.

But, Jesus.

He doesn’t see us as undeserving. He looks at us with eyes of love. He sees us as His treasure and He cares about our hurt (1 Peter 5:7). When we feel the hurt that brokenness brings, we can’t handle it with grace on our own. We can’t forgive. We aren’t able to move past it at all, actually. But, Jesus can. He will. He has. He is able. 

You see, when we try and handle hurt on our own, all the ugly comes out. The this-isn’t-fair mentality, the my-feelings-are-hurt whining, the revenge-will-make-me-feel-better and the they-deserve-the-cold-shoulder response… it’s all so, so dangerous. Because, you see, friend… as a child of God, we are called to honor Him with the way we handle the hurt. Without giving it all to Him and allowing Him to guide our response, there’s no way to work through it in a way that shows others His goodness, grace, and mercy through us.

I would be lying if I said that it’s not sometimes a daily struggle to fight the fleshly desire to take dealing with hurt into my own hands. If I told you that this is something I have already overcome, it just simply wouldn’t be true. But again, even that striving, is something I could never accomplish apart from my Father. When we lay our burdens down at His feet, He carries us through and teaches us to walk in His grace, day by day.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

I feel called to share this today, kind of as a continuation of this post from a few weeks ago, and it’s my prayer that you’re encouraged! We have a good, good Father!