Ezekiel 24:18
So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
Ezekiel never planned on God’s will bringing hurt and pain to his life, but hurt and pain were part of God’s will for his ministry. Ezekiel had already been used by God to do several unsavory things to be an example to those he preached, but he never expected this next example to happen. God told Ezekiel that he was to preach to the people during the day, and at even he would come home to find that his wife died of a stroke. God then told him that he was to get up the next day and do as he was commanded.
This critical principle shows how the believer is to deal with life’s pain. The best way to deal with life’s pain, no matter what form that pain comes in, is to move on. Had Ezekiel stayed home and mourned, he could not have moved on from the hurt. The way that Ezekiel dealt with the greatest heartache of his life was to move on.
Let’s face it, Job turned his heartache into a blessing by moving on. When God told Job to gird up his loins like a man, God was telling him to get up and move on. It was when Job moved on from the great tragedies of his life is when he saw the heartache turned into blessing.
At some point, everyone will have to deal with hurt in their life. The hurt may come in the form of the death of a loved one like Ezekiel, or the hurt may come from the hand of a fellow believer who does you wrong. Hurt comes in many forms, but hurt can only hurt you if you choose to wallow in the hurt instead of moving on.
Moving on does not mean that you don’t hurt. Too many are concerned with what others think about them if they move on, but they are not the ones who feel the pain on the inside. You cannot wallow in hurt and the hurt get better. If I pick at a scab, the wound under the scab will continue to be a wound. However, the way to let the wound heal is to let it scab up and never pick at it. The fact that you had to move on shows that it is a great hurt in life.
Moreover, moving on does not mean that you are indifferent. Moving on from the loss of someone to death does not mean you love them less; it means that you love them enough to continue to live. Any person who has passed away would not want you to wallow in self-pity for the remainder of your life. You cannot concern yourself with those who say hurtful things about you when you are going through hurt. Just because they say that you are being indifferent does not mean that you are indifferent. You have to accept that nobody’s timeframe to hurt is the same; therefore, moving on is your way of dealing with the hurt.
My friend, moving on means that God has a purpose in life, and that purpose will be discovered until you move on. God has an eternal purpose for everything He does in your life, and moving on from life’s hurts is what allows you to find that purpose. Had Samuel not moved on from God rejecting Saul as king, he would have never been used to anoint David as the next king. Had Elijah not moved on from the hurt in his life, he would have never been used to train Elisha as the next prophet of Israel. Your hurt is part of God’s eternal purpose for your life, and eternity will be bettered if you move on. There are people you can help if you move on, and by moving on to help others, you will find that God uses your moving on as the way to ease the pains of life.