Joy the Painkiller 

I know what pain can do to you. It can feel like a black hole physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But pain is not your identity. You aren’t limited to what pain says you can be. You are who God says you are. Your true identity is who you are in God’s presence—the person who chooses to receive God’s love, joy, peace, patience, and hope, and give them away regardless of how you feel. 

When pain threatens to take over, hit the emergency button marked “YOU ARE LOVED.” Take a breath, and ask Jesus to make His love—His complete, perfect, healing love—real to you. Listen for His voice. Every word is restoring, strengthening, and encouraging you.  
Stare down the pain by thanking God for all you have. Rejoice, sing, and laugh in pain’s face. Tell it there’s no room for it in God’s presence, and to not let your joy hit it in the butt on its way out. 

Cultivate that joy. Your joy is so needed in this world. Let it reverse pain’s lie that you don’t matter anymore. You are not irrelevant. You are not insignificant. You are beyond brilliant in Jesus, and the rest of us need that brilliance. We need to know Him like you do. We need to know what you’ve learned through your journey and battles. We aren’t complete without you. 

Let this prayer soak into you as you read it: 

“Father, I pray for healing in every one of my friends today. Physically, emotionally, spiritually—that they would be whole in You. I ask You to make every cell in their bodies perfect. I pray every disease would be gone, every wound healed, and every heartache overwhelmed by Your love. 

I pray they would see themselves as You do, and understand how much they are loved. I pray joy would renew their identities in You, that it would fill their souls, and become contagious to everyone around them. Amen.”