Stop Praying For The Pain To Leave: The Hidden Purpose Behind Your Suffering

You’ve been praying for the pain to leave. You've fasted, you've stood at the altar, and you've begged God for an exit strategy because you are completely exhausted. You are looking at your life—the struggle in your marriage, the physical sickness, the endless financial pressure—and you are asking God why it hasn't stopped.

But what if I told you that you've been praying the wrong prayer?

"While you may never grasp the reason for the pain, the reason for the suffering, you can embrace the result that the suffering and the pain produces in your life." — Pastor Mike Signorelli

I waited over twenty years to preach this message, because it's a difficult reality to confront. We want a Christianity of convenience, not a Christianity of crosses. But the scriptures tell a completely different story about the purpose of our pain. Here are four essential truths about suffering that will change how you fight your battles.

1. Graduate to the Right Kind of Suffering

There are two kinds of suffering in this life: the suffering that is a consequence of your own sin, and the suffering that is a consequence of your salvation.

"The goal of every Christian is to suffer because of your salvation, not because of your sin." — Pastor Mike Signorelli

When we read the book of Acts, we see the early church taking off in Jerusalem. In Acts chapter 5, the religious elite pulled the apostles in, beat them physically, and commanded them to stop speaking the name of Jesus. Why? Because the name of Jesus has power. But when the apostles left that council, they didn't complain. The scripture says they left rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.

Think about Peter. Peter was always messing up. He tried to cut off a centurion soldier's ear, just looking for an excuse to be a gangster, and Jesus had to correct him. Peter used to suffer because of his own stupidity. But in Acts 5, Peter finally graduated. He was getting in trouble for the right reasons. Some of you need to stop suffering because you drank too much, slept with the wrong person, or popped off at the mouth, and start suffering because you're unapologetically shining the light of Jesus Christ in a secular culture.

2. Let Pain Produce Your Peace

We all want peace. But the peace you are looking for is on the other side of the pain you are running from.In Hebrews 12, the author explains that God is treating us as sons, and for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. You cannot be trained by what you do not stay submitted under.

I didn't even know how to love people until God allowed the pain of my biological father wounding and rejecting me. I didn't know how to pray for the sick until I was laying in a bed sick, hoping somebody would pray for me. I didn't even know how to preach a sermon until I was so confused that I desperately hoped someone would give me the truth of God's word.

God allows the pain so you can become more like Jesus.

When Julie and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary at a nice restaurant on Long Island, I cried from morning to night. I cried because I knew the pain we endured to get there. We had to train in our marriage. I had to feel the pain of discipline so I wouldn't let my anger turn into self-destruction, and we had to learn how to communicate and serve one another. That discipline turned into righteousness, and that righteousness produced peace. Stop medicating the pain with fake peace, and let the discipline do its work in you.

3. Behold God's Glory in the Fire

When you get a devastating diagnosis, or when your prodigal child runs away from the Lord, you might feel like you are being crushed. But God reveals Himself most clearly in your greatest suffering.

Look at Stephen in Acts 7. As the religious leaders threw stones at his head to kill him for his faith, the scripture says Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God. I once spoke with a spirit-filled Palestinian pastor who ministers in Bethlehem. He told me a story about being physically assaulted in the streets for his faith by a group of men throwing rocks and beating him bloody. I asked him what it felt like to know he might become a modern-day martyr. He smiled broadly and said it felt like being in the greatest revival he had ever experienced—like the love of the Father was all over his body.

The greater the suffering, the greater the compliment from God, because He knows what He put inside of you.

Stop trying to drink it away. Stop trying to scroll it away on your phone. Sit in your suffering, look up to the hills, and say, "God, show me your glory!".

4. The Reward Outweighs the Resistance

Finally, you must remember that the suffering of this present time is not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:18.

If the reward is worth it, then baby, let's suffer. Recently, I learned that a woman secretly smuggled my book, Inherit Your Freedom, into China and gave it to a man leading over 50 factions of a cult. He read the book, gave his life to Jesus, shut down every faction of the cult, and baptized the former members. If you told me I had to go through all the agony of writing and ministry just to shut down a cult in China, I would tell you to sign me up to go through it all again. The eternal rewards always outlast the temporary resistance.

Stop Suffering in Silence

Ecclesiastes 3 says there is a time for everything. And right now, it is time for you to stop suffering in silence.

I'll be vulnerable with you. One of my greatest flaws is that I make hard things look too easy. Recently, a team member asked me how the church could pray for me, and I almost started crying. I realized I suffer silently, never even thinking to ask my own church for prayer. Many of you are doing the exact same thing. You don't want to be a burden. You pick up your phone to scroll faster than you go to the prayer closet.

The Bible says to confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed.

I am challenging you directly right now: Do not let another day go by where you try to carry this weight on your own. Step out. Send the text. Call a brother. Show up to a small group. Confess what you are going through and let the body of Christ do what it was designed to do. God is using this pain to graduate you to the next level of your calling. Let Him finish the work.

If this resonated, watch the full sermon at https://youtu.be/QefGvKaByVI 

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