25th - 31st May 2026
Written by Ed Underwood
MONDAY
Pain
Elizabeth Elliot wrote a small book titled “These Strange Ashes”. It was about her early missionary life as a single woman before she married Jim. Elizabeth tells a number of very confusing and painful stories that do not resolve to a clear purpose. One of the stories is about Jim Elliot, who she would marry later. That year they were in separate parts of the country and, while Elizabeth was working on Bible translation, Jim was building a clinic in the jungle. He was cutting down trees and hewing planks by hand. After a year of back breaking labour, he had a few hundred planks that he used to build a small clinic. Then there was a huge rainstorm and the nearby river began to rise. After a few days of unrelenting rain, the river burst its banks and approached the new clinic. Hour by hour the water approached until the clinic was swept away and torn to bits. A year’s worth of labour was gone in a moment for seemingly no purpose at all. Jim had laboured for the Lord to serve the people of the jungle and rain, which God had total control over, destroyed this good clinic. Why?
That question of why the Lord allows pain and suffering is a large and complex topic without a single answer.
In the book of Job, we see that Job is the centre of a cosmic battle between God and the devil. Job has no clue about what is happening as things get worse and worse. In the end, Job sees the other side of his suffering and God restores to him children, community and wealth – but God never tells Job – WHY.
Job 23:1-5
Then Job answered and said: Today also my complaint is bitter, my hand is heavy on account of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me.
Part of the answer to the why question for Job is the millions of people who have drawn strength and endurance from Job’s story. Very simply, Job would not have lived long enough for God to even list off all the names, much less tell Job the stories of each of these people. In this case one reason the WHYs were so big was that Job just could not have taken in the answer.
Lord, I feel a lot like Job today. I have these really painful things in my life that make no sense. I really would like for you to make them go away. I feel I don’t deserve any of this and that you should hear my case and find me not guilty. Yet, the idea that all this pain in my life has a real purpose and it could be bigger than I can conceive humbles me. Help me to trust you, that you really are not allowing all this pain just to make me miserable but to do something so beautiful I cannot take it all in. Amen
TUESDAY
I Samuel 22:1-3
David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.
David was anointed King, had won great battles and married the king’s daughter. It all looked good until the king, Saul, decided to kill him. Now he was on the run for his life and, if that was not bad enough, he now had leadership of a group of malcontents. Little did David realize that this was not piling on sorrow on sorrow but equipping him to lead the nation. The things he learned leading these people would grow David into an effective leader of God’s people.
Lord, my work life is crazy. My boss is not throwing spears at me but might as well be. No matter what I do it is never enough and I seem to be blamed for everything. My teammates are on holiday, undercutting each other or just dodging work. It really does feel like a punishment with no purpose. Could it be that my workplace is a gym rather than a gaol? Please teach me how to work in this place in a way that honours you in the pain I face here. Amen.
WEDNESDAY
2 Corinthians 12:7-11
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satin to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamites. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul had prayed for many people to be healed and they were. He also had direct visions from heaven about God’s plan of salvation and was preserved from many dangerous situations. But here he is with personal pain – and he is PLEADING with the Lord to remove it. It is hindering him, it is tormenting him. God’s answer – you need this pain to be effective for me.
Lord, I have to be honest, I’m no Paul. I don’t wake up rejoicing in my pain and I really would like you to remove it. But, if there is going to be pain in my life I would be very interested in it having a purpose. Please give me purpose and power when the pain cannot leave my life. I can’t see how that works, but I believe that you can do it. You can work in my pain to do wonderful things I can’t imagine. Amen.
THURSDAY
Genesis 3:6- 8
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Here was the perfect couple in the perfect place and they just committed the greatest sin of history. Pain was flooding in – and now they were hiding from the only one who could help them. They knew what they were doing was wrong but they had no concept of how much destruction was going to be unleashed by their actions.
Lord, if I could undo the things that have caused so much pain in my life and that of others I really would undo them. But I see the destruction and pain flowing from my sin into the lives of so many others and it just seems to get worse and worse. Please help me to NOT hide from you, but to come to you with the mess I have made. Lord Jesus, by the power of your shed blood, please take this pain in my life and those I have injured and repair, restore and bring purpose to all of it. You are the only one who can do anything good with this mess. I trust you to do what I cannot imagine. Amen.
FRIDAY
Genesis 37:23-28
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colours that he wore. And they took him and threw him in a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on the way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
Family. There are few sources of pain greater. Where there should be acceptance, love and protection can be a place of rejection, abuse and exploitation. Joseph’s brothers were so angry with him they were ready to kill him. Being sold into slavery was just the beginning of years of abuse and suffering for Joseph. Eventually God would turn all of this upside down and these same brothers would be kneeling before him begging for food when Joseph was a ruler in Egypt. Joseph would say, “And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and keep alive for you many survivors. So, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” But even Joseph fell short in his understanding – he did not just keep 70 people and a bunch of sheep alive, he opened the way for a nation to be built – in suffering. And foreshowed what Jesus would do for all people.
Dear Lord, I have so much pain in my life from my family. It seems to burn in my joints and my guts, my heart just melts. It all feels so unjust and there is no escape. So many things just seem to loop in my mind over and over. So the idea that where there is great pain, you are able to do a great work, seems amazing and hopeful to me. I can’t see how that could happen but I believe that you can do anything, even the impossible, like taking this huge source of suffering and do something good with it. Amen.
SATURDAY
Hebrews 11:35b-40
Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering about in desserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
We have a heritage of suffering. There were many who went before us and endured in faith great pain and suffering and did not see any purpose in it – they got no relief and to those looking at them, their lives were sad and miserable. But they did so in faith – that God would find them obedient and his people. So, what was the point? It was, US. They suffered without relief, so that we would be brought into the eternal kingdom of Christ. They never knew about us, they never imagined us. But they had faith in God, that he had purpose in their suffering. And those faithful ones will be so glad to meet us.
Lord Jesus, it is humbling to think of those who suffered in faith that I am benefitting from. People never knew me but were willing to carry pain and abuse that I might be blessed. Thank you for them, please help me – in my pain and suffering to be like them – able to endure until I get to see what you were about. Amen.
SUNDAY
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin with clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
No one suffered more than Jesus, because he was suffering for every sin. We cannot conceive of how great this suffering was. So how could it be worth it? Even Jesus, on the cross, is crying out to his Father – “why have you forsaken me?” He had to be forsaken to heal our forsakenness. What gave him the ability to endure? JOY. Jesus had no doubt that there was a great purpose in his suffering. No one could see that purpose, everyone saw shame, weakness and death. And Jesus did not like any of that – he despised the shame. BUT he could see the purpose and he trusted his Father to bring that purpose to pass. That is what allowed him to endure.
Lord, give me the power to believe you. That you can come into my pain and suffering and transform it. I sure can’t see how it would be possible. But you found Joy enough to endure the cross. Help me to find power like that to endure and come to the Joy that you have on the other side of all the pain. Amen.