Where Is Grace When I’m Hurting?

If God is gracious, why does following Him sometimes make life harder?

That question doesn’t come from rebellion.
It comes from pain.

Many people begin walking with Christ expecting clarity, peace, or relief—only to find that suffering doesn’t immediately disappear. Sometimes it intensifies. And when that happens, a quiet question surfaces:

Where is grace now?

The apostle Paul wrestled with that same question.

Paul’s Pain Didn’t Look Like Grace at First

In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul describes a deep, ongoing suffering he calls a “thorn in the flesh.” He doesn’t tell us exactly what it was, but he makes two things clear:

• It was painful
• It felt like a hindrance to his ministry

Paul even calls it “a messenger of Satan.”

He prayed—more than once—for God to take it away. He did not initially see it as grace. He experienced it as harassment and obstruction.

That honesty matters, because it tells us something important:

Struggling to understand suffering is not a lack of faith.
It is often the beginning of deeper faith.

When God Doesn’t Remove the Pain

God eventually answers Paul—but not by removing the thorn.

Instead, He says:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Grace was not absent just because the pain remained.
Grace was doing something Paul couldn’t yet see.

God wasn’t punishing Paul.
He was protecting him—guarding his heart from pride and reshaping his understanding of power.

What Paul first experienced as a hindrance, Christ revealed as grace.

Grace does not always give us what we ask for, but it always gives us what we need.

Grace Makes Your Weakness Christ’s Witness

Paul eventually comes to a surprising conclusion. Instead of hiding his weakness, he speaks openly about it. He even says he boasts in it—not because suffering is good, but because Christ’s power is unmistakable through it.

Here is the key truth:

Grace makes your weakness Christ’s witness.

Weakness does not disqualify faith.  It often authenticates it.  This pattern runs throughout the Christian story.

We expected God to conquer evil with overwhelming force—but He gave us a crucified man.
We expected power to look like domination—but God revealed it through surrender.

The cross looked like weakness.
The resurrection proved it was power all along.

And that same power continues to show up today.

• In the addict who keeps worshiping while still fighting
• In the grieving widow who prays through anger and sorrow
• In ordinary believers who remain faithful even when life hurts

Grace does not erase weakness.
Grace reveals Christ through it.

What This Does Not Mean

This truth needs clarity.

It does not mean:

• Suffering is good
• Christians should stop praying for relief
• God delights in pain
• Believers must pretend they are okay

It does mean this:

When suffering remains, grace is not gone—and your story is not over.

God often uses what feels like weakness to make His power visible, not just to you, but to others who are watching how you endure, trust, and hope.

If You’re Hurting Right Now

If you are hurting and wondering where grace is, you are not behind in faith. You may be exactly where Paul was, still praying, still hurting, still learning.

Grace may not remove the pain today.
But it can sustain you, reshape you, and turn your weakness into a witness to Christ’s power.

And that kind of grace is stronger than relief alone.

Closing Reflection

Grace does not always change our circumstances.
But it never wastes them.

Grace shows up—even here.

Grace and Identity | Grace: The Gift That Changes Everything Series - The Way of Life Church

Most of us don’t struggle to believe that grace saves us.
We struggle to believe that grace is how we live.

Somewhere along the way, many Christians quietly adopt a myth:
Grace gets me in the door with God, but staying close to Him depends on how well I perform.

We would never say it out loud, but we live as if God saved us by grace and now keeps us by effort. The result is a life marked by pressure, insecurity, comparison, and spiritual exhaustion.

The apostle Paul confronts this thinking directly in Galatians 2.

Declared Right, Not Proven Right

Paul writes, “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Justification means being declared right before God, not proven right by performance. Our standing with God rests entirely on what Jesus has done, not what we do.

The “law” in Paul’s world included moral commands, religious practices, and identity markers that measured spiritual worth. In our world, the measuring systems may look different, but the instinct is the same. We measure ourselves by discipline, consistency, church involvement, or moral improvement. Even spiritual effort can quietly become self-salvation.

But if righteousness could be maintained by effort, faith would be unnecessary. Grace and self-justification cannot coexist. You cannot live in grace while trying to earn what only Christ can give.

The Same Trust That Makes Us Right Is How We Live Right

Paul anticipates the objection: If we stop relying on rules and performance, won’t that lead to more sin?

His answer is surprising. The problem is not too much grace. The problem is too much self-reliance.

Rules can restrain behavior, but only faith can reshape the heart. The law can expose sin, but it cannot produce holiness. Going back to performance doesn’t heal sin. It strengthens independence from God.

Paul says he “died to the law so that he might live to God.” A life pleasing to God flows from faith, not from constant self-pushing. Scripture says it plainly: without faith it is impossible to please God. Not without effort. Not without rules. Without faith.

Identity changes everything. My identity is not what I do for God. It is what Christ has done for me.

Grace Isn’t a Do-Over. It’s a Takeover.

Galatians 2:20 sits at the center of the Christian life:
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

This is not religious self-improvement. It is spiritual replacement.

The old self, the old system of proving worth, the old way of managing life has been crucified. Christ now lives in the believer. He becomes the new source, the new power, and the new center. The Christian life is not about trying harder. It is about trusting deeper.

Grace doesn’t add Jesus to our old identity. It crucifies the old identity and gives us a new one.

Employee or Child?

Many believers unknowingly live like spiritual employees instead of beloved children.

An employee works to stay in good standing. A child belongs before performance.
An employee hides failure. A child runs to the Father after failure.
An employee obeys to feel secure. A child obeys because they already are secure.

This difference is not personality. It reveals who is really living your life: you, or Christ in you.

Living as a child does not remove obedience or discipline. It removes earning. Grace doesn’t remove effort. It removes fear-driven performance.

When Performance Undermines the Cross

Paul gives a sober warning: if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Whenever we try to earn what Jesus already paid for, we quietly suggest that His cross was insufficient.

Grace plus performance is not teamwork. It is contradiction.

Returning to self-effort rebuilds what the cross tore down.

What Living by Faith Actually Looks Like

Living by faith reshapes everyday life:

After failure, we return instead of retreating.
In obedience, we depend instead of performing.
In suffering, we trust instead of negotiating with God.

Faith is not improving yourself. It is surrendering yourself to Christ.

Jesus did not save you so you could manage your life better. He saved you so you could trust Him to live through you.

Grace did not give you a job to keep.
It gave you a life to live.

And that life begins by becoming who God already says you are.