When Life Hurts: Can God Really Use Your Pain for Good?

Have you ever looked at something painful in your life and wondered what God could possibly do with it?

Maybe you prayed for things to turn out differently. Maybe you don’t understand why God allowed it. Or maybe you’re still right in the middle of it, wondering if anything good could ever come from something that hurts this much.

I’ve wondered those things too.

When I Wondered If My Pain Had a Purpose

“I don’t love you. I never loved you.”

Those were the harsh words that kept repeating in my mind. How could he have married me if he’d never loved me?

Just a few months earlier he had decided to move in with his girlfriend. We had only been married a few short years, and now I was brokenhearted, spending many lonely nights in the house that we had once shared.

My mind swirled with so many questions. What was wrong with me? Why wasn’t I worth fighting for? In those moments of loneliness, I would cry out to God for comfort—for anything really.

I wondered if there was purpose in the pain as I walked through that dark road in my early twenties.

At the time, I couldn’t understand how anything good could come from what I was going through. But now I can see that God didn’t waste that painful season. That doesn’t make what happened good. But it has shown me that God can bring good even from circumstances that aren’t.

Does God Have a Purpose for Your Pain?

As a Christian, you’re not promised a life without pain.

In fact, Jesus tells us in John 16:33 that we will have trouble. But I’m so thankful the verse doesn’t stop there:

“But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

When painful days come, Romans 8:28 gives us another promise to cling to:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

That doesn’t mean everything you go through is good. But even in the hard and painful things, you can trust that God can still use them for good.

1. God Can Use Your Pain for Good

To be honest, there have been days when it doesn’t feel like God has the best plan for my life.

But when I dig through Scripture, I see story after story of God bringing something good out of circumstances that certainly didn’t feel good to the people walking through them.

Remember the story of Lazarus in John 11?

Mary and Martha were upset because Jesus didn’t get there in time to heal their brother Lazarus.

Jesus knew something they couldn’t see. After Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days, He raised him from the dead.

Verse 45 says:

“Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.”

Mary and Martha couldn’t see what Jesus was going to do while they were grieving. They only knew that their brother was gone.

Sometimes that’s where you are too. You can only see what hurts right now—not what God may eventually do with it.

And sometimes God uses what you’ve walked through to help someone else.

2Corinthians 1:3–4 describes God as the “God of all comfort,” who comforts you in your troubles so that you can comfort others with the comfort you’ve received from Him.

The pain you’ve experienced may someday allow you to sit beside another hurting woman and say, I’ve been there too.

2. God Sees You in Your Pain

My soon-to-be toddler son’s face exuded joy every time he accomplished his newfound trick of rolling over.

He had rolled over the day before—multiple times, in fact—so there was no doubt in my mind that he could do it again.

But this time it was harder for him.

He would sway his body one way, but his head would go the opposite direction. He just couldn’t quite get it.

No mother wants to see her child struggle, and it took everything within me not to reach out and flip him over. It would have been so easy to do it for him, but if I did, how could he ever learn?

As I listened to him grunt and watched him struggle, I thought about how difficult it can be when you are the one struggling.

You pray for God to change something, but nothing seems to change. You wonder if He sees what’s happening or if He’s listening at all.

He does.

Psalm 34:18 says:

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

You may not understand why God hasn’t changed your circumstances, but His silence doesn’t mean He’s absent. He sees you. He hears you. And He is near to you in your pain.

3. God Is With You Through Your Pain

As I walked through my divorce, one verse in particular resounded in my heart over and over again:

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” — John 10:27–29

Much like I did, I pray you’ll find comfort knowing that no matter what trials you face or who may hurt you in this life, you are secure in the Father’s hands.

Isaiah 43:1–2 gives another beautiful picture:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…”

Notice that God doesn’t promise you’ll never go through deep waters.

He promises He’ll be with you when you do.

You may desperately want God to take away your pain. But while you’re waiting, you can cling to something that doesn’t depend on your circumstances changing:

You don’t have to walk through it alone.

4. You Can Trust God When You Don’t Understand

I don’t know about you, but when I’m walking through a difficult situation, it’s hard to imagine that anything good could possibly come from it.

My brain can’t fathom it.

But that’s what trust is about, isn’t it?

Trusting God doesn’t mean pretending something doesn’t hurt. And it doesn’t mean you have to understand what He’s doing.

Sometimes trust simply means believing God is still good when you can’t see what He’s doing yet.

I love the words of Romans 15:13:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

When life gets tough, what—or who—are you trusting in?

Related: Overwhelmed and Unsure? Find Comfort In These 50 Verses About Trusting God

Bible Verses to Hold Onto When You’re Hurting

When you’re hurting, it can be hard to quiet all the thoughts running through your mind. One thing that has helped me is finding a verse that speaks to what I’m walking through and coming back to it again and again.

Write it down. Put it somewhere you’ll see it. Memorize it if you can. Most importantly, let God’s Word remind you of what’s true when your circumstances make it hard to see it.

Romans 8:28

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Remember: Even when you can’t see anything good coming from what you’re walking through, God is still at work.

2 Corinthians 1:3–4

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

Remember: The comfort God gives you in this season may someday help you comfort someone walking through something similar.

Psalm 34:18

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.“

Remember: God is near when your heart is broken. He meets you right in the middle of the hurt.

Isaiah 43:1b–2

“‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.‘”

Remember: God doesn’t promise you’ll never face deep waters, but He does promise to be with you as you walk through them.

James 1:2–4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Remember: Your difficult season isn’t wasted. God can use even the hard things to strengthen your faith and help you grow.

Psalm 147:3

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Remember: God sees the places where you’re hurting, and He cares about healing your broken heart.

Isaiah 42:16

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

Remember: You may not be able to see the road ahead, but God can. You can trust Him to guide you one step at a time.

When You Can’t See What God Is Doing Yet

If you’re in a painful season right now, you may not be able to see anything good coming from it.

I couldn’t either when I was sitting alone in the house I had once shared with my husband, wondering what was wrong with me.

Years later, I can look back and see that the pain wasn’t the end of my story.

And yours isn’t either.

You don’t have to figure out God’s purpose for your pain today. You don’t have to force yourself to find the lesson or pretend you’re okay.

For today, you can simply hold onto what you do know: God sees you. God is with you. And He is able to bring good even from the parts of your story you never would have chosen.

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More Encouragement for Hard Seasons:

• If your faith is being stretched learn how to choose faith over fear.
• Are you full of anxiety and fear? Let me show you how to calm down anxiety and find freedom from fear.
• Do you pray but nothing seems to change? Let’s talk about why God says no to prayers.
• Be encouraged with these 50 uplifting verses about hope in hard times.
• Grow in your faith walk with one of my favorite devotions for women.