Pain and suffering are inevitable in this broken sin-tainted world.
You perhaps know few who are in that situation now. The question is, “What could I or should I say in those situations?”
I’ve been there. Yes, maybe perhaps listening ear is the biggest thing the person needs.
However, over the past several years as I studied and counseled many members, here were helpful quotes and words I have found from pastor theologians who I have greatly leaned from.
Here are 15 words of comfort for those walking through pain/suffering.
1. “An ounce of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow.” – Richard Baxter
2. “Whatever troubles are weighing you down are not chains. They are featherweight when compared to the glory yet to come. With a sweep of a prayer and the praise of a child’s heart, God can strip away any cobweb.” – Joni Eareckson Tada
3. Our sorrows are all, like ourselves, mortal. There are no immortal sorrows for immortal souls. They come, but blessed be God, they also go. Like birds of the air, they fly over our heads. But they cannot make their abode in our souls. We suffer today, but we shall rejoice tomorrow.” – Charles Spurgeon
4. “Every tear of sorrow sown by the righteous springs up a pearl.” – Matthew Henry
5. “Let God enlarge you when you are going through distress. He can do it. You can’t do it, and others can’t do it for you.” – Warren Wiersbe
6. “They gave our Master a crown of thorns. Why do we hope for a crown of roses?” – Martin Luther
7. “Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.” – John Calvin
8. “You don’t really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” – Tim Keller [1]
9. “We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God Himself visited to redeem. We receive his poured-out life and being allowed the high privilege of suffering with Him may then pour ourselves out for others.” – Elisabeth Elliott
10. “When you suffer and lose, that does not mean you are being disobedient to God. In fact, it might mean you’re right in the center of His will. The path of obedience is often marked by times of suffering and loss.” – Chuck Swindoll
11. “God never wastes a hurt.” – Rick Warren
12. “Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” – C. S. Lewis
13. “I have not suffered lot for Christ, but I want to tell you that those times that I have suffered, and I knew it was for Jesus, have been some of the happiest times of my entire life. I cannot tell you the indescribable joy that has come into my heart and my life.” – Adrian Rogers
14. “The person who bears and suffers evils with meekness and silence is the sum of a Christian man.” – Charles Wesley
15. “God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” – Augustine
[1]Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, First Edition edition (New York: Viking, 2013), 5.