(Editor's note: The writer of the blog chooses to remain anonymous. The story is known to be accurate.)

I once heard a story about a family.

The family was a faithful, God-fearing family, and they loved serving in their church. They attended church every time the doors were opened. Their family grew while they were in church, their children fell in love with mission work there...and they faced the greatest struggle of their lives there.

That struggle was sexual abuse.

Their five-year-old daughter was sexually abused by a Sunday school teacher. After learning of this tragedy, the parents of this family were torn. Having both teenagers and elementary students, they were unsure of the right move to make.

For their young daughter, the damage was done. The pain had entered her life, telling her "You'll never be worth anything." She would never be able to escape what happened to her. Their other children, both young and old, had to acknowledge their sister's pain.

Would it be best to remain in the church where her hurt happened?

A divide within the family began to grow as they sought to answer this question. Suddenly, their hard work and faithfulness to the church they loved so dearly betrayed them, forcing family members to look at their pain from two perspectives. This introspection resulted in each side of the family seeking the Holy Spirit for guidance in making the right choice.

Amazingly, the Spirit led these two parts of the same family into making two different decisions.

Some of the family remained at the church. Too hurt and betrayed to stay, other family members realized they could no longer worship in the same building. They chose never to re-enter the building and sought a new house of worship.

Why is this story important?

It is important because real hurt can happen in a church family. Feelings get hurt, Christian marriages suffer, and sin will enter the church building when there is no vigilance to protect those within. But for believers, when tragedy strikes, so does the ever-present Word of God and His truth.

Without biblical, Spirit-led discernment, it would have been easy for onlookers to say, "The church hurt them, so they should leave, or they have a right to be angry." And without a shadow of a doubt, this family had and still has a right to feel hurt by their church. But being hurt doesn't warrant refraining from fellowship with other believers.

Thankfully, both sides of this family maintained a scripturally mandated fellowship. The parents prayed and sought guidance and ended up staying where they were planted. In contrast, their older children moved their church membership, unable to stay rooted in place without bitterness while freely worshipping as they had before the incident.

As this story exemplifies, the hurt that comes from within the church is a slippery slope – one that believers must navigate carefully, lest pettiness or drama take root, resulting in a situation no longer about the church but emotions.

Riots in the streets, sickness in the souls, and yes, even sexual abuse within the church walls wear down believers. The pain and loss are real. But as believers, we can't live by our emotions, not when the entire world seems to be screaming out for hope.

If there was ever a man who understood this, it was Job. He loved the Lord and, in the process of living his life for Him, Job lost everything. But instead of focusing on his pain and suffering, Job chose to look to what he knew the Lord was capable of doing.

In Job 42:2 (NKJV), he calls out to God and says, "I know that You can do everything and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You."

These wise words came from a believer who lost his belongings and family, suffered from boils covering his body, and was tempted by his wife to curse God. Yet, he refused and still praised the Creator, the very one who gave Satan permission to torment Job in the first place.

Likewise, when our life situations, including church hurt, seem impossible to get over, there is still hope because God can and will do all things well. None of His plans will be hindered. Even in our pain, others don't have to understand what's happening because the Lord already knows our end from our beginning.

Consequently, an easy way to look past our hurts and know the right thing to do is to take our eyes off of ourselves and look to the Word. For when it comes to personal spiritual wellbeing and discipleship, the only opinion that matters is that of the Lord.

The church can hurt us. That is a fact.

Nevertheless, as evidenced in the life of Job, the Lord can use our hurt to refine our character, integrity, and reliance on Him. If we aren't seeking His will and plans when "church hurt" happens, we'll never see a victory. But by understanding that God has a plan and seeking Him through the hard times, there is hope.