TURNING YOUR PAIN INTO PURPOSE - Pt. 2

During that period when I was floating as a student sent out of the School of Basic Medical Sciences, I felt very lonely inside. That was when I knew what depression really means. It felt as if the whole world was crashing on me.

I will forever be grateful to the brethren who stood by me. I will never discredit the family of God I belonged to on campus. If no one saw anything good about that fellowship, I am a living proof that God works through that body. I am proudly a product of RCFIUO. That was where God made me. I salute all my leaders. They stood by me. God bless them.

But even with that support, there were still lonely moments when despair and hopelessness crept in. One thing that made it worse was when a coursemate, who heard my story, told me he almost made the same mistake I made by not coming for summer school. He said he was warned in a dream.

When I heard that, my heart broke even more. I wondered, "Why didn't God also warn me about the deception of the HOD? Why didn't He send someone to warn me or speak to me directly? God, what did I do?" Again, I felt like Zion.

_"But Zion said, 'The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.'"_ - Isaiah 49:14 NIV

Let me say this by the way: when you see a brother or sister going through pain, that is not the time to share how you escaped the same problem. Testimonies are good, but at that moment, it may push the person deeper into depression. They may start asking God, "Why me? What have I done wrong?"

One trick of the enemy during trials is to make you feel you are the only one going through pain. That feeling makes you think everyone else is specially loved by God except you. It weakens your faith and kills your joy.

Sometimes in trials, we feel like Zion - forsaken and forgotten. That feeling comes from the enemy to keep us in fear and pain, and to push us into bitterness. It makes us react instead of rejoicing with others.

Have you not seen people who react to every good news with bitterness? If a friend is getting married, they say, "She had to sleep with him before he agreed to marry her." If someone has a breakthrough, they say it must be through stealing or fraud. People who talk like that are often speaking from a place of pain.

If that feeling stays for long, you will begin to think everyone doing well is using a shortcut. And Satan will whisper that you too should look for a shortcut. That is where backsliding begins. You don't need to get to that point if you allow the Holy Spirit to heal your heart.

In the village, women throw away palm kernel shafts. They think it is waste. But a wise woman gathers them and uses them as firewood to cook. What looked like waste becomes fuel. Your pain is your fuel.

That divorce can become fuel to help other families. That delay in marriage, in childbearing, in getting a job, or in rising in your career while it seems others have left you behind - it is not a waste. It is fuel for a greater purpose. That is why you should not cancel yourself just because others look down on you.

Paul says, _"For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!"_ - 2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT

You cannot change some things that have happened to you, but you can control how those things shape you and affect your mind. That mess can become one of your greatest messages that will bring transformation to others.

Without the pain of the cross, there would be no salvation for you and me. Without the pains of Paul, we would not have the epistles. We are all beneficiaries of someone's pain because they found purpose through it. When will your own pain birth purpose for others?

Dear friend, God wants you to turn your pain into purpose. He is the Master Recycler who recycles pain into purpose. Allow Him.