I’m Still Walkin’
God's Sufficient Grace: How to Keep Walking When Life Hurts
Pastor Travis Hearn stood in front of his church and admitted something most pastors are afraid to say out loud. Some pain does not disappear, no matter how many times you ask God to take it away. That honest starting point is where you find God's sufficient grace, because it is not a promise that every wound gets removed.
Sometimes God's sufficient grace shows up by giving you the strength to keep walking with a wound instead of erasing it completely. This does not mean God has forgotten you or that your prayers went unanswered. It means the healing you are looking for might look different than you expected, and that difference can still be good news.
Can You Be Broken But Blessed at the Same Time?
Jacob spent most of his life chasing blessings instead of the God who gives them. He lied to his father, took what belonged to his brother, and built a life around getting ahead. Then one night, in the book of Genesis chapter 32, Jacob found himself wrestling with God until sunrise, refusing to let go until he received a blessing.
What happened next is the part people skip past too quickly. God did not simply hand Jacob a blessing and send him on his way. God touched Jacob's hip and left him with a permanent limp, because the blessing came through the breaking.
This is the picture of broken but blessed: Jacob walked away from that encounter changed, and the limp was not a punishment. It was proof that he had actually met God.
Jacob also received a new name that day, Israel, which meant his old identity as the deceiver no longer got to define him. If you have ever felt like your past mistakes have given you a permanent label, Jacob's story says otherwise. You can be broken but blessed, carrying a limp that reminds you of what you walked through while also carrying a new name that has nothing to do with your past.
Today, try naming one label from your past that you are ready to release, even if you cannot fully explain how yet.
What Does the Bible Say About Wounds and Healing?
Lazarus was already dead by the time Jesus arrived, four days dead, according to his sister Martha in John chapter 11. She told Jesus it was too late, that there would even be an odor from the body. Yet Jesus stood in front of that tomb and called Lazarus by name, and Lazarus walked out alive, still wrapped in the burial cloths he had been buried in.
That detail matters for anyone thinking about wounds and healing. Jesus could have raised Lazarus already dressed and free, but he did not. Instead, Jesus told the people standing nearby to remove the grave clothes themselves, because sometimes God does what only God can do, and then he asks the people around you to help you finish taking off what is still wrapped around your life.
This is where wounds and healing get complicated for a lot of people. You can be spiritually alive again, set free, and still be walking around bound by shame, guilt, or fear, the way Lazarus was still wrapped in cloth even after he was raised. Letting go of shame is not something you have to do by yourself, and healing includes letting someone help you take off what you have been wearing far too long.
Pick one grave clothes item you are still wearing today, whether that is shame, resentment, or fear, and name it out loud to someone you trust this week.
What Does God's Sufficient Grace Look Like in a Still Walking Faith?
The apostle Paul described a thorn in his flesh in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, something painful enough that he begged God three times to remove it. Scripture never tells us exactly what the thorn was, and that is likely intentional. It means anyone reading this today, no matter what their thorn actually is, can see themselves in Paul's story.
God's answer to Paul was not removal. God's sufficient grace for you is not always removal either. God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
That single sentence has carried believers through impossible seasons for two thousand years. Paul prayed for the thorn to be taken out, and God responded with something different than what Paul asked for.
Pastor Travis Hearn has lived this same tension. Three and a half years after a massive stroke nearly took his life, he still preaches with a numb hand, a numb leg, and words that occasionally do not come out the way he intends. He calls it a still walking faith, the choice to keep moving forward even when the physical reminder of what happened to him never fully goes away.
This is the heart of a still walking faith: it does not require every symptom to disappear or every question to be answered. Choose today to keep walking one more day, trusting that God's sufficient grace is made perfect in exactly the weakness you feel right now.
What Can 2 Corinthians 12 Teach You About Walking Through Pain?
The passage in 2 Corinthians 12 gives three examples worth remembering when your own wound feels too heavy to carry. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 12:9 after pleading with God to remove his thorn, and the response he received reshaped how an entire faith tradition understands suffering. Each of the three biblical figures below encountered God in the middle of pain and came out walking differently.
1. Jacob's Broken Hip
What Happened: Jacob wrestled with God all night and refused to let go until he received a blessing.
The Outcome: God gave him a permanent limp and a new name, Israel, showing that the blessing came through the breaking rather than around it.
2. Lazarus's Grave Clothes
What Happened: Jesus raised Lazarus from death after four days, but Lazarus came out of the tomb still wrapped in burial cloth.
The Outcome: Jesus asked the people nearby to help remove the grave clothes, showing that healing sometimes requires community, not just a miracle.
3. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh
What Happened: Paul asked God three times to remove a painful thorn, and God chose not to take it away.
The Outcome: God's grace became sufficient for Paul in his weakness, turning the unremoved thorn into a source of strength for others.
Across these three stories, a few honest truths keep showing up.
Some wounds change the way you walk without stopping you from walking at all
Blessing and breaking can happen in the very same season of life
Healing sometimes includes other people helping you take off what still binds you
God's grace can be sufficient even when the pain itself is never fully removed
Where Can You Find This Kind of Honest Community?
Pain like this rarely waits for a convenient moment, and whether you are sitting with it quietly at home or trying to hold it together during an ordinary day, you are not the only one carrying something you have prayed about more than once. Across the Valley, from North Scottsdale to South Scottsdale, and whether you call Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, or Paradise Valley home, Impact Church is here throughout Maricopa County to sit in that honesty with you. With a campus in North Scottsdale and a new South Scottsdale location now open, there is a church near you in the greater Phoenix area that will not rush you past your pain.
Your Wounds Do Not Get the Final Word
Jacob walked with a limp, Lazarus walked out of a tomb still wrapped in burial cloth, and Paul walked with a thorn that God never removed. Each of them still walked, changed by what they had survived but never defined by it. Pastor Travis Hearn's own words say it best: your wounds might remind you of what happened, but they do not get to win.
You are welcome to see this same hope lived out in person this Sunday at Impact Church, plan your visit below.
Take one step toward laying this down before God today; the prayer team at Impact Church would be honored to stand with you in it, reach out here.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Your wounds may explain part of your story, but scripture shows they do not get the final say. Jacob received a new name and identity after his encounter with God, proof that your past does not get to dictate your future. Letting go of shame and old labels is a process, not a single moment, and Impact Church walks with people through that process every week.
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Yes. Paul's thorn in 2 Corinthians 12 was never removed, yet God used it to display his grace to millions of readers for two thousand years. Jacob's broken hip became proof of an encounter with God rather than a permanent limitation. Your pain does not disqualify you from being used; it can become the very place God's strength shows up.
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Proverbs 24:16 says the righteous person falls seven times and rises again, which means getting knocked down is expected, not a sign of failure. The goal is not to avoid every fall but to keep getting back up and keep walking, even if your walk looks different afterward. Community matters here too, since you were not meant to keep getting up alone.
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In this verse, God tells Paul that his grace is sufficient and that his power is made perfect in weakness. The original language carries the idea of God's power pitching a tent over your weakness, making a home there rather than simply passing through. It means God's strength is most visible not when everything is fixed, but when you keep trusting him in the middle of what is still hard.
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My Wounds Won't Win is a five week teaching series from Pastor Travis Hearn at Impact Church exploring how people carry pain, how that pain affects the people around them, and how to invite God into wounds instead of just learning to live around them. The series draws on the stories of Jacob, Lazarus, and the apostle Paul to show that wounds can change how a person walks without having the final word over their life. Past messages in the series are available through the Impact Church app or YouTube channel.
Leave us a comment to share your favorite takeaway from the sermon and be sure to share the message with someone you care about.
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