3 Day Bible Reading Plan - “The Struggle of Prayer: Pain”

God grieves our hurt. He doesn’t call evil things good, and He is not indifferent to the moral quality of things. He is opposed to evil. God created a good world with good people who had the good gift of choice. These good people misused this good gift and brought about death and pain. God will not let this be the end of the story, and as He brings this story of humanity to its glorious end, He promises not to waste our hurt, but to use it for our good. - Pastor Paul Crandell, 6/7/26

Day 1

• Featured Verse: Romans 8:26–28

  • When you find yourself in a place of deep weakness where you don’t even know how to pray, how does it change your perspective to know that the Holy Spirit is interceding for you with groans that words cannot express?

  • How does the promise that “in all things God works for the good” of those who love Him speak to the specific hurts or losses you’ve experienced, especially knowing God grieves with you and is opposed to evil.

  • If God truly refuses to let evil and pain have the final word in your story, what does it look like for you to trust Him to weave even your deepest wounds into something good and purposeful?

Pause and Reflect: Holy Spirit, thank You for helping me in my weakness and interceding for me with groans when I don’t know how to pray. Lord, I trust that You are working all things together for my good because I love You. Use even my pain and confusion to accomplish Your perfect purpose in my life.

“All things work together for good. The best things work for good to the godly: the word and the sacraments. The worst things work for good: affliction works for good. ‘It yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness’ (Heb. 12:11). What hurt does the fire to the gold? It only purifies it.” -Thomas Watson

Day 2

• Featured Verse: Romans 8:29–30

  • When you look at the hurts and failures in your life, how does the promise that God is actively conforming you to the image of His Son bring comfort or raise new questions in your heart?

  • Knowing that God foreknew you before the foundation of the world, how does that truth change the way you view the painful seasons you’ve walked through?

  • How does the assurance that God will complete what He began (bringing you all the way to glory) give you hope when evil, pain, or weakness seem to have the upper hand?

Pause and Reflect: Heavenly Father, thank You that You foreknew me, predestined me to be conformed to the image of Your Son, and have called and justified me as part of Your unbreakable purpose. Lord, even in my hurts and weaknesses, continue Your transforming work in me and give me confidence that You will bring me safely to full glorification with Christ.

“Here is a precious truth for thee, believer. Thou mayest be poor, or in suffering, or unknown, but for thine encouragement take a review of thy “calling” and the consequences that flow from it, and especially that blessed result here spoken of. As surely as thou art God’s child today, so surely shall all thy trials soon be at an end, and thou shalt be rich to all the intents of bliss.” -Charles Spurgeon

Day 3

• Featured Verse: 2 Corinthians 12:7–10

  • When you face a persistent “thorn” in your life, something painful that God has not yet removed, how does Paul’s experience invite you to hear God say, “My grace is sufficient for you”?

  • In what areas of your current weakness or suffering do you sense God wanting to display His power most clearly, and how do you feel about boasting in those weaknesses rather than hiding them?

  • Looking back on a time when you begged God to take away your pain, how has His refusal sometimes led to a deeper experience of Christ’s strength resting upon you?

Pause and Reflect: Lord, thank You for the thorns You allow in my life and for the assurance that Your grace is sufficient for me in every weakness. Jesus, when I feel powerless and hurting, teach me to boast gladly in my weaknesses so that Your power may rest on me and be made perfect through them.

“Do not ask to be rid of your trouble, do not ask to have ease, comfort, or any other form of happiness,—my favour is enough for thee; or, as good Dr. Hodge reads it, ‘My love is enough for thee.’ If thou hast little else that thou desirest, yet surely it is enough that thou art my favoured one, a chosen subject of my grace. ‘My love is enough for thee.’ What a delicious expression. You do not need an explanation. Repeat the words to yourselves, and even now conceive that the Well-beloved looks down on you, and whispers, ‘My love is enough for thee.’” -Charles Spurgeon