Remember, Jesus was totally God and totally human. If He did not or could not feel what we feel, what was the value of His suffering? He experienced what you and I experience when we hurt. He knows what it is to feel ashamed. Sessions in Pain Pg. 84
It was never God’s plan for us to experience pain and shame; these things came with the fracture of creation when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. The beauty that came out 
of all of this is that Christ joined us as we lived in this fractured creation. He allowed Himself to experience pain and shame so that we would know that He sympathizes with our weaknesses and will show us the way from sin.
Our Lord will often take us down the road less traveled or the road not taken. As I look back today I am so grateful, once again, that He was so passionate for me as to set up the circumstances in my life so that I would choose His agenda. Session in Pain pg. 144
I have come to love the Road Less Traveled. I even look for it in most situations. It is the road where I am mostly likely to meet my Lord and find the treasures He has for me.
“They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32 NLT
As I recollect one of the greatest sorrows of my life in which I was betrayed by someone I dearly loved and trusted, I can vividly recall a voice in my spirit saying, “Now we’ll see what you really believe.”
Sessions in Pain pg. 48
You will do what you really believe, and not always what you say you believe. When your “fight or flight” reflex kicks in do you run back into Babylon or do you run to Christ? Your true belief will be tested in the fires of life. If you have failed this test (and we all have), take heart; His arms remain open to bring you to Real Belief.
Never leave you! 
Never forsake you!
Job came to a place of not only confronting his accusers, but, also, preaching to them. When you tune in to the Holy Spirit, you will come through your trial, not on your back but preaching on your feet!
Sessions in Pain, pg. 163
Like Job, we can be knocked off of our feet for a moment; hopeless and in despair. But the Holy Scriptures declare that in all things we are more than 
conquerors through Him who loved us!(Rom.8:37). This is why the great apostle wrote that he gloried in tribulation (Rom.5:3); he knew the secret of suffering as a believer. He knew that as you remain in Christ through the hard days you are guaranteed to always come out with more strength, power and preaching on your feet!
The Bible describes a man named Peter before the crucifixion of Christ and then describes him differently after the crucifixion. Before the cross experience, Peter was impulsive and quick to anger and, when backed into a corner, denied his Lord and Friend. This man was not yet convinced of all that Jesus had taught him.
Sessions in Pain, pg. 129
The cross experience is different than the salvation experience. The cross experience involves suffering, losses, and then an emergence into a new perception in God. The cross experience marks you and changes you for life. The cross experience molded Peter into a true believer, an apostle and eventually a martyr for Jesus Christ. All who have excepted Christ will face the Cross Experience.
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24 NKJV).
Beloved, God calls us to lay down our lives before Him. He may
allow a stripping of your life to bring you to a place where you are ready to leap. This place is not physical but spiritual. He longs for us to love Him, the Giver, over the gifts. The gifts, the things we cling to, will never satisfy; this is why we are called to lay them down at His feet.
Sessions in Pain, pg. 206
The Humility that is needed to lay our things down at His feet will not come easily. Our pride will not go down without a fight. Humility must be determined – it must happen in us on purpose, as we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ!
We lay it all down – we let it all go!
On many occasions I have felt justified in my dislike and hatred of those who have deliberately wounded me. But when I turn to God, I am reminded of the words of David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 KJV). Renew a right, steadfast or loyal spirit within me. Loyal to whom? Loyal to my God. We can become allies with evil so quickly and insidiously when we have been wounded.
Sessions in Pain, pg. 222
As we move into this new year may we seek God’s face to renew a right spirit within us. Do not let the hurts. mistakes and losses of the previous year or years detour your seeking. The Word of God says that His Spirit is generous and that He does not give us what are sins deserve, but is ever seeking to renew His right Spirit within us.
Reach out and take it!
Journal what God is teaching you. You must grasp the precious moments with Him in this season; take advantage of this time of waiting…the lowliest hearts are closest to God. You may think you are stagnant, but you are never closer to the flow of His Spirit than when you are waiting with your heart ready to receive.
Sessions in Pain, pg. 189
Oh the joy of a cultivated heart! A heart that has been turn toward Christ through adversity; a heart that sits waiting to receive the seeds of God for the future of its life. These precious moments of waiting will become benchmarks of your best growth. These will be the quiet victories that you will testify to, encourage others with, and even write books about. They are the moments worth recording in the journals of your heart.
Have you ever done something out of obedience to God and was ridiculed for it? Sometimes the ridicule comes from the very people you were trying to help. I know many pastors and other community servants know what I’m talking about. Have you said in secret that they are so unworthy of this gift of service God has called you to give to them? But God presses you to continue because that is the essence of who He is—He is Love.
Sessions in Pain, pg. 87
Love is as Love does. Love cannot be explained. Its actions and sacrifices are a continual mystery to us. It reaches out and delivers gifts to the unworthy. That is what happened that first Christmas. Love arrived delivering hope to an unworthy world. The truth of our unworthiness is what makes this love so powerful.
While we were yet sinners Christ came!
Oh, how God looks for hearts that will submit to the testing—hearts He can purge and make after His own. The Psalmist said, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). Often the on-going pain is because purging is a process.
Sessions in Pain, pg. 166
This purging process will take the rest of your life. Some will begin the process and then concede that the sacrifice is too great and compel the Savior to look else where for a willing heart. But others will long to remain the Children of the Living God enduring the purging of ungratefulness through poverty, of complaining through pain, and of pride through humility.
Will He find your heart? Can He keep your heart? 
Remember, Jesus was totally God and totally human. If He did not or could not feel what we feel, what was the value of His suffering? He experienced what you and I experience when we hurt. He knows what it is to feel ashamed. Sessions in Pain Pg. 84 
