21/09/2026
Having Another “Eye” For Our Struggles
Do you struggle with something today?
Is there an area of your life that repeatedly causes you to ask, “Why me? Why am I always facing this?”
Perhaps you are struggling with an illness and wondering when healing will finally come.
Perhaps it is financial pressure that seems to have no end.
Perhaps it is a painful relationship, a habit you seem unable to overcome, the loss of a job, rebellious children, barrenness, rejection, loneliness, or a burden you have carried for years.
Name it. God already knows it.
But what if, in the midst of your struggle, God wants to give you another eye through which to see it?
What if your pain is not only something you are being called to bring before God for yourself, but also an opportunity to stand in the gap for someone else who is fighting a similar battle?
Paul wrote: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” — 2 Corinthians 1:3–4
There is something powerful about this Scripture.
The comfort we receive from God is not necessarily meant to end with us. Sometimes God allows us to know the pain of a particular struggle so that we can become more compassionate intercessors for others walking through that same valley.
Perhaps your tears can become someone else's prayer.
Perhaps the nights you have spent asking God for an answer can teach you to remember someone who is spending similar nights asking the same questions.
Perhaps your experience of rejection can make you more sensitive to someone who feels unwanted.
Perhaps your financial struggles can cause you to remember the family that does not know where tomorrow's meal will come from.
Perhaps your experience with illness can cause you to kneel before God for another person lying on a hospital bed.
Perhaps your longing for a child can make you remember another woman or couple silently carrying the pain of barrenness.
Perhaps your experience with a rebellious child can teach you to pray for another parent whose heart is breaking behind a smile.
Your struggle can become a doorway into someone else's pain.
Learn to Look Beyond Yourself
The Bible gives us a beautiful picture of intercession in Job 42:10: “After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.”
Job had his own wounds. He had his own unanswered questions. He had experienced tremendous loss.
Yet there came a moment when he had to lift his eyes beyond his own pain and pray for others.
There is something spiritually significant about praying for someone who is experiencing what you are experiencing.
You are no longer saying only: “Lord, help me.”
You begin saying: “Lord, while You are helping me, please remember those who are going through what I am going through.”
That changes the posture of the heart.
Turn Your Pain Into Intercession
The next time you find yourself crying because of your struggle, pause for a moment.
Do not suppress the tears.
Do not pretend that it does not hurt.
Bring your own burden honestly before God.
Then, after presenting your situation to Him, ask: “Lord, who else might be carrying this same burden?”
And begin to pray.
If you are sick, pray for the sick.
If you are struggling financially, pray for those struggling to provide for their families.
If you are lonely, pray for those who have no one to call.
If you are grieving, pray for those whose hearts are broken by loss.
If you are waiting for a child, pray for others who are waiting.
If you are experiencing rejection, pray for those who feel unwanted.
If you are battling a destructive habit, pray for those who are silently fighting the same battle.
If you are carrying the burden of a wayward child, pray for other parents whose hearts are aching.
Let your struggle teach you how to intercede.
There Is Power in Standing in the Gap
God said through Ezekiel: “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land…” — Ezekiel 22:30
To stand in the gap is to position yourself before God on behalf of someone else.
You may not be able to change their circumstances.
You may not have the money to solve their problem.
You may not have the words to explain their pain.
You may not even know their name.
But you can pray.
And sometimes the most significant thing you can do for someone is to carry their situation into the presence of God.
So, when you enter your prayer closet tomorrow morning, do not only take your own list with you.
Take somebody else's burden too.
When you pray for healing, remember the sick.
When you pray for provision, remember the needy.
When you pray for your marriage, remember struggling couples.
When you pray for your children, remember parents whose children have gone astray.
When you pray for peace, remember those whose homes are filled with conflict.
When you pray for restoration, remember those who have lost almost everything.
And when you pray for yourself, look around spiritually and see somebody else who needs the same grace.
Your Pain May Become Someone Else's Prayer
There is a mystery in God's work among His people: sometimes the very place where we have known pain becomes the place from which we develop compassion.
The wound may not have been meaningless.
The waiting may not have been wasted.
The tears may not have fallen without purpose.
And although we should never romanticize suffering or assume that every painful experience was directly sent by God, God can redeem even our painful experiences and use them to make us more compassionate toward others.
Paul understood something about this when he wrote: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair.” — 2 Corinthians 4:8
You may be perplexed, but you can still pray.
You may be hurting, but you can still intercede.
You may still be waiting for your own breakthrough, but you can still ask God to bring breakthrough to someone else.
You do not have to have everything resolved in your own life before you can stand before God for somebody else.
So, Have Another “Eye”
Perhaps today you have been looking at your struggle with only one eye: “Why is this happening to me?”
Today, ask God for another eye:
“Lord, who else needs the grace I am asking You for?”
Then create a moment.
Go somewhere quiet.
Kneel if you can.
Cry if you must.
Open your heart before God.
Present your own situation to Him, but then begin to pray for somebody else facing a similar battle.
And perhaps, as you stand in the gap for them, you will discover something beautiful: You are not alone in your struggle.
There are others fighting similar battles.
And your struggle, though painful, can become a bridge through which compassion flows, faith rises, and intercession is born.
“Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2
Today, do not only ask God to change your situation. Ask Him to make you an intercessor in the midst of it.
Your tears can become prayers.
Your pain can become compassion.
Your waiting can become intercession.
And your struggle can become an opportunity to stand in the gap for someone else.
Perhaps God wants you to have another “eye” for your struggle.
