Have you ever felt a pain so deep that it moved you to hurt yourself physically? If you answered yes to this question or know others who may be hurting themselves physically, please hear this: Pain, no matter how deep, is not meant to be carried on our own. Inflicting harm onto ourselves is never an answer to heal or cope with pain. There is no pain that Jesus cannot heal, and there is no pain that was designed to be carried on our own.

When we look at verse 18 of Psalm 88, the psalmist, in the depths of his pain, states that his only friend is darkness. Within the same breath, verse 1 of Psalm 89 begins with shouts of joy and thankfulness to the Lord. The pain carried in Psalm 88 was not carried into Psalm 89 due to the love and life-change that is only found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Self-harm is never the way to cope with pain. Do you have pain that you haven’t allowed Jesus to carry, and need to surrender to Him today?