Rock bottom: Where do I look?

One of the things that every one has in common is pain. Everyone has experienced deep pain and sorrow in their lifetime. In the past 6 months I can count countless times that I have experienced joy and happiness, but I can also count heartache after heartache that I have experienced. I can count heartache after heartache that some of my closest friends and family have experienced, and I can tell you that there is nothing like some of the pain that I have witnessed people go through. When you are watching a casket get lowered into the ground, there aren’t many feelings like the finality of the situation. When you are on the phone listening to someone cry (that literally never cries) because he lost both of his parents in 5 months, there isn’t anything that you can say. But in everything that I have experienced and watched others go through in the past few months, I have learned this: The LAST thing that you need to do when you experience pain is run from God. He is the comforter. The TRUE comforter and the last thing that you need to do is run from Him. There are only two things that you can do when you are going through a valley that seems like it is literally never going to end. There are only two places to look.
1. 1The first place to look is the cross. Jesus understands pain and suffering. Why? Because He WAS the sufferer! I endured hunger and thirst. He went through death! His cousin had his head chopped off! He knows what it’s like to experience death.. He understands what it’s like to have your best friends walk out of your life. In His time of greatest need, his 12 closest companions were nowhere to be found. He knows physical pain. More physical pain than I can even imagine. He identifies with the sufferer, because he was the sufferer. He took on the worlds sin and endured MUCH more than we often think or talk about.
2. The other place that you must look is forward towards what the cross has accomplished. Why are you enduring pain? The Lord never intended for death, hunger, pain, and sorrow. But sin entered the world and with the fall of man, pain entered the world too. But Jesus conquered death and proved victorious! Every heartache that we endure produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character. And character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame! (Romans 5:3-5) So when you are going through pain run to the Lord. He is the only one who can comfort you.

I know that pain is hard, but the LAST thing you need to do when you are going through a hard time is run from the only One who can give you comfort! With his comfort comes a peace that is out of this world! The joy that comes from the comfort of the Father's arms is unreal. Don't run from Him, because you are upset by your circumstances. He is so much greater than any circumstance.