Pain and suffering. Not a pleasant conversation, is it? No one wants to talk about their pain and suffering. We tend to want to sweep it under the rug. But we all have it. We all have things in our lives that we have to endure and suffer through. Let’s offer it up to God.
Not many people will post that on Facebook. They tend to hide behind their pretty pictures of their perfect families. Facebook would be pretty depressing, though, if we all posted our pain and suffering, so we tend to keep it to ourselves.
But there is a way to endure suffering. There is a way of taking our pain and suffering and turning it out for good and that is to offer our sufferings up to God. He knows all about pain and suffering. His life on the Cross was the Ultimate Sacrifice.
When I say, ‘offer it up’, I’m talking about praying to God that He would take it from you. Give it all to Him.
Flame of Love
I recently came across this idea of offering it up from Elizabeth Kindelmann who wrote The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It’s a spiritual diary about her life and sufferings. Jesus and Mary spoke to her about offering up her sufferings and helping to promote the Flame of Love. I believe that suffering here on earth has a purpose and Elizabeth wrote about how she offered hers up to God for the salvation of souls.
So many times, we wonder why a good God would allow so much pain and suffering in our world. What if our pain and suffering was a way for us to help others, especially those in our families, those loved ones who have already passed?
This idea of offering our sufferings is also in a prayer that many Catholics pray: The Morning Offering.
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month.
What if we thought of suffering as a blessing? What if our suffering brought us closer in our relationship to the God who saves us? –Well, it does, friends. So offer all your pain and suffering to God. Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you. Isn’t that why we are all here?
When we offer up our pain and suffering, the burden is no longer ours, but His. That will then allow the light of Christ to shine in our hearts, like the Flame of Love within Mary in the picture above. Let your light shine. Thanks for following along. God bless your day.–Barb
Another great blog Barbie 🤗