Lysa TerKeurst, Sheila Walsh: God Works Your Pain Into Purpose

Lysa TerKeurst joins Sheila Walsh on TBN’s Praise. Listen in as Lysa shares about painful parts of her past, and encourages that God is working—even through your pain—on YOUR behalf! In your darkest moments, remember you have the ultimate victory in Christ—and rest assured, God will work it out.

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I’m sure with all of your heart, you still wish that your dad wouldn’t have passed away.
I still wish with all of my heart, the past 10 years of my life wouldn’t have gone the direction that it went.
Um And yet I do know that God is trustworthy and in the physical realm of all the pain that we see, that is absolutely true.
We are experiencing real pain, but at the same time with God, there’s always a meanwhile.
Meanwhile, this is all true and what God is working out for good is also true.
And those two are operating at the same time.
I want you to imagine that you are sitting down, not opposite me, you’re sitting down opposite your 21 year old self.
What would you say to her? That’s such a good question.
I would say that there’s gonna be a lot of life that happens and you’re gonna have a choice to either look at the circumstances and try to determine from the lens of those circumstances if God is faithful or you can keep your eyes on the Lord.
And remember God is good, even when he doesn’t feel good.
God is good to you and God is good at being God.
You don’t have to carry the weight of all that you’re gonna face by yourself.
And if you look through that lens, that God is good, God is good to me and God is good at being God, then your circumstances will be kept in perspective so much better.
I love that. God is good at being God. Yeah, that’s powerful.
Well, I think too many times in my life, I have tried to carry the weight of all that I’m basing and I work my emotions into a tangled tray and I work my fingers to the bone trying to figure it out or fix it.
But you know, some of the most powerful scriptures that I’ve clung to, especially the past 10 years come from Mark chapter 14.
And it’s right when Jesus right before he’s about to go to the cross and his prayer is so almost brutally honest to the Lord where he says, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
And when I hear those words, I think about this Jesus because he was perfect divinity and full humanity.
He was sinless, but he was very much sinned against. So Jesus had access to all the answers.
He knew it all. And yet even having all the answers, his soul still cried out that he was overwhelmed me to the point of death.
And so Jesus had the answers and it didn’t fix his sorrow.
So I could spend my whole life seeking out answers to why this happened.
And you know what good is possibly gonna come from it ever.
I could seek those answers or I could just simply trust the Lord in that moment and just say, Lord, you are good, you are good to me and you are good at being God.
So therefore, I don’t have to carry that weight.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody express that one particular thing of Jesus had all the answers, but he was still in anguish.
That’s, that’s huge. Well, it was huge for me because I’m, I’m a girl that likes to take all the facts and try to figure it out and I feel like if I can figure it out, then I can get through it.
But that’s kind of the opposite of faith.
You know, if, if, if it’s only dependent on what I can see and what I can do and what I can figure out then that’s not really me stepping into the fate that will really get me through what I’m walking through.
I want you to take us back because I don’t think I know that much about your childhood.
What was your family like growing up? Well, um my mom had me when she was very young.
She was only 19 when she got pregnant with me.
And um she got married at 18, got pregnant with me at 19 and my biological father was shipped off to Korea.
And so my mom and I lived in a single wide trailer with plastic furniture.
And we still laugh about that to this day.
And uh she was my whole world and I was her whole world.
As a matter of fact, when I was six months old, my mom decided I it I, I’m not into these cloth diapers anymore.
So she decided to potty train me and six months, six months, I have pictures to prove it because I know that sounds so strange.
But, um, but she did and, and that was that those were those early years, those really formative years.
But it was such a blessing to have a mom that loved me and adored me and treasured me and told me every day what a gift I was to her.
Um, because that was not the case with my biological father.
He never wanted Children and he made it really clear.
And when he came home, it was, he was only home for, you know, just a few short years and, and things went really sideways between he and my mom, my mom was about to leave him and she found out she was pregnant with my sister.
So we stayed in kind of an environment that was full of turmoil.
And then, um, eventually my mom did leave him and divorce him.
And, um, when my dad left my mom, he left us too.
And at that point, I was probably nine or 10 years old and my mom had to go out and work several jobs just to make ends meet.
And so I have this vivid memory of sitting at the kitchen table one morning before she went to work and she slid this pile of bills over and the checkbook over and she said, Lisa, you’re gonna have to figure this out because I can’t.
And so then nine or 10. Yeah.
And so then I had to figure out what bills to pay and what bills to hold and how long we could hold certain things so that our water wouldn’t get cut off and had to balance the checkbook and all of that.
And, you know, I did it.
And uh my mom and I, again, we worked as a team and we got through those years.
Um then in, later in middle school, my mom remarried a wonderful man and he really became a father figure to us.
And, um, and then they started having more Children.
And so I had my sister, um, they had my sister, Sarah, she, my mom went into labor with my sister Sarah on my 15th birthday.
And then, um, and then she had my sister Hayley, um when I was 18 and Haley was just like my baby and she was very, very precious to me.
Um But tragically when I went off to college at 16 months Haley got really, really sick and passed away.
And it was one of those seasons where I, I thought that I could make a deal with God.
If you’ll just save Haley, then I promise you I will love you. I’ll serve you.
But in my mind that meant I’ll follow your rules.
And so I felt like I had kept up my end of the bargain, but God did not.
And so I turned my back on God and just said, forget it. I’m not doing life your way.
And so college was full of ups and downs.
Even when I graduated college, I just kept trying to seek happiness my own way.
And um eventually I found a guy that said that he loved me and, and kind of said all the things that my biological father never did and we were dating and then I found out I was pregnant and my mom was still going through so much grief over losing Haley.
Um And I was terrified that I just, I just felt very alone and terrified.
So I made the really tragic choice to have an abortion and that’s really what brought me to my knees.
And um I’ll never forget the emotional pain from that decision sent me into such a spiral.
And um then one day I really did just cry out to the Lord and I just said, I don’t know what I’m saying.
Yes to, but I need you. And so I say yes to you Lord.
And pretty much my life has been in a series of continuing to say yes to God since then.
What would you say to someone who’s listening and watching and thinking if even if there is a God, I remember it happened with our son who was five and my father in law lived with us for a couple of years and Christian and I were the only two home, the night that he died and I saw in the days that passed Christian went from grief to anger.
And I remember asking him about that and he said, I asked God to save my papa and he didn’t.
So it’s not that I don’t believe there is a God.
I think there might be, but I don’t like him and I’m not going to talk to him anymore.
What do you say to somebody who feels like?
Because here’s the two things we believe that God is all powerful and we believe that God is love.
So if you’re all powerful, don’t let this little one die. If you’re just love, then you wouldn’t.
So that means you’re not all powerful. Yeah. What do you say to that?
First of all, I would say, I understand and I think your feelings are valid.
Of course, we would feel that way, right?
Um And then going back to mark 14 where Jesus is in the garden right after he prays that his soul was overwhelm as hard to the point of death going a little further.
He prays this God. Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.
In other words, God, you are capable of anything. So don’t let this be my story.
Don’t let this be the way things go. Um take it, take it away from me.
And I just think what a gift Jesus gave us that again.
Jesus knew the plan and he knew that it was for good. He knew everything on this earth was temporary.
He knew that it’s eternity that’s gonna be forever. He knew all of that.
And he still said to God, God, everything is possible for you to change the plan.
That’s so mind blowing to this. But just like we see in Hebrews two, there’s two reasons that Jesus came.
He came to make atonement for our sin, but he also came to be a merciful and faithful high priest.
In other words, he came so that he could feel the weight of humanity, the grit, the grime and the grief of humanity.
And I believe he wants us to really look at what he did next.
So he prays like take this cup from me. Change the plan.
Don’t make this be the way the story goes just like I’m sure Christian prayed over your um father and I prayed over so many circumstances in my life.
I don’t want this to be the way my story goes.
But then Jesus utters these nine earth shaking, hell shattering demon quaking words.
Yet not what I will but what you will God.
And so often in my morning prayers, I will pray God.
You are good God, you are good to me and God, you are good at being God.
And right behind that, I say after I make all my suggestions, you know, with so many suggestions and I honestly think some of my suggestions are really, really good knowing you.
I’m sure they are. But um but I do, I, I have a moment where I sit with the Lord and I say, ok, all of that and I’m gonna trade my will for thy will because I’m so confident you will, God.
And I don’t have to see how it’s gonna work out and I don’t have to know all of the answers.
I I’m sure with all of your heart, you still wish that your dad wouldn’t have passed away.
I still wish with all of my heart, the past 10 years of my life wouldn’t have gone the direction that it went.
Um And yet I do know that God is trustworthy and in the physical realm of all the pain that we see, that is absolutely true.
We are experiencing real pain. But at the same time with God, there’s always a meanwhile, meanwhile, this is all true and what God is working out for good is also true and those two are operating at the same time.