I remember lying in the hospital bed, contractions wracking my body with pain. I was in labor with my first daughter, and hadn’t yet been given my epidural. I was breathing through the end of a contraction, and looked over to see my daddy turned slightly toward the window, tears welling in his eyes. Later, he said he just didn’t like seeing me in pain.

I suppose no good father likes to see his child in pain…even his adult child. I suppose a father hurts when his child hurts and would do anything to deliver the child from pain.

* * * * *

God is not the author or source of our pain. We were told we’d have trouble in this life. And somehow, we’ve assumed that God is the one who gives us the trouble, the pain. The Enemy has so deceived us. We blame God for our hurts instead of the real Enemy.

Why don’t we believe that the Enemy really does come to kill, steal and destroy?

God is on our side. He is for us. And yet we believe otherwise…because the Enemy perverts the truth of who God is. And what better place for him to do it than in religious circles? I remember hearing a minister say that God is not for us in a “cheerleader” kind of way. Of course, He is! He created us for His pleasure. Why wouldn’t He encourage us to be who He created us to be? I don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in having a Father who sits on the sidelines and doesn’t take great delight in me.

Like any good Father, He guides us in the ways He has established for our benefit, but He give us freedom to choose. And when we are deceived by the Enemy and choose the path that leads to pain, He hurts with us.

When we are hurt and in pain, He is right there with us, in our hurt, wanting to deliver us from it. God hates our pain worse than we do. He is the ultimate good father. He doesn’t hold our wrong choices against us, shaking a finger in our faces saying, I told you so! No…He says, Come to me, and I’ll give you rest.

Even when we’ve chosen well, the Enemy still finds ways to steal, kill and destroy. Disease, disaster, violence…all the things we wouldn’t choose, yet they cause us pain. Even then, the Father loves us and longs to give us rest.

I’m so angry at how the Enemy deceives us and keeps us from knowing the gracious and merciful love of the Father…the Daddy of all daddies. He goes even further than our earthly fathers can: He takes our hurt, our pain, all the things the Enemy means for evil, and He turns them into good. While we’re in the midst of our pain, the good is difficult to see; but one day…one glorious day…our eyes will be opened, and we will see clearly how He’s always been working for our good and His glory.

Until then, may we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus…