January 3, 2026 Devo

As I started my prayer walk on New Year’s Day, I began by thanking God for His Grace. I took time to think back across the years of my life and how much God had forgiven me for and how much He had brought me through. As I reflected on my past pride, failures, and sins, I felt a sharp pang of shame. I found myself saying, “I’m so sorry I was so foolish and hardheaded, Lord.” Though I rest in God’s grace and know I am forgiven, something hit me. I’m thankful for the pain. My shame was like scars on my soul, reminding me of what not to do. It reminded me of a truth that I had forgotten. Pain is a gift from God.
That may seem like a crazy concept, but it’s true. When someone develops leprosy (Hansen’s disease), they lose the ability to feel, especially in their extremities. So they hurt their fingers or toes, but they don’t know it because they can’t feel the pain, so they don’t treat the cut or gash. That’s when infection sets in and eventually leads to gangrene. Then the damaged extremities must be amputated, or they fall off.
That’s why we find the Lord appealing to His people in our passage today to pay attention to their pain. They’re suffering again and again because they refuse to learn the lesson that pain was created to teach us. Our pain, our wounds, our hurt—they are all designed to get our attention so that we might live and act differently. But some of us ignore the pain. Some of us have lived with the pain so long that we’ve come to expect that it’s an unavoidable part of life. So like the Israelites, we keep doing the things that wound us. And we live battered and broken lives as a result.
Pay attention to your pain. Pay attention to the guilt and shame that you sometimes feel. When you find yourself broken because you chose your way over God’s way, let that brokenness teach you. Let the scars of your past remind you that you can choose a better way in the future. And if, like me, you find yourself thinking about your past and feel shame for things you’ve already confessed, claim your forgiveness and thank God for His grace. But don’t curse the shame and the scars. Because that pain is a gift from God. That’s God’s Word for you today.