Changed

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18

Pause

It’s inevitable—life’s hard places change us. We cannot pass through the valley of suffering and emerge the same person. Our journey has the potential to either deepen us or destroy us, and we determine the direction it goes.

Compare the lives of two biblical women. Anna was married only seven years when her husband died. She spent the rest of her life worshiping God through prayer and fasting in the temple. At age eighty-four, she immediately recognized the infant Jesus as the Messiah, burst into praise, and told everyone about him (Luke 2:36–38).

Naomi lost her husband and two adult sons. In the aftermath of loss, she renamed herself saying, “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter” (Ruth 1:20).

God’s intent is not that suffering makes us bitter. His desire is that it makes us better—kinder, gentler, wiser, stronger. His intent is that pain makes us more like Jesus.

Ponder

If someone wrote your story, what would you want written about your response to pain?

Pray

Lord, make me better. Make me more like Christ.