We believe that the more we live our life with Christ, the more we will look like Him. But when we face the reality, it doesn’t say so.
We are a worker, a Christian for many years, or a leader but still struggling with our fundamental life. We struggle of ourselves and tend to hurt others. And we ask “Why am I always react non Christ-like?” “What’s wrong?”
A cover story to bring us into idea of that questions mark.
We heard a boy crying loud outside the classroom. He was murmuring and saying ‘I don’t want’. He cried and cried for a long time. Then someone went outside and found that this boy has a wound and some people were trying to cure his wound.
I thought, “Many times we are like this boy. We don’t understand that God is trying to heal our wounds. So we resist Him because we are afraid of pain. Often we hide our wound so no one can touch or see it, then it breeds germs. Our heart becomes infected and becomes unstable. But let’s look at the heart of God. Many times we don’t understand that His heart is to heal us. But we need to take a part in what He wants to do for us. Are we willing to get healing? Let’s not carry our wounds the whole of our lives.
Here are some steps we need to do so that we can be effective in His Kingdom.
1. Acknowledgement
Let’s check our heart, are we spiritually and emotionally wounded? We need to acknowledge that we are wounded and need help from Him. We need to be vulnerable before God. Bring our mess instead of pretending we are okay. Let’s humble ourselves. He is faithful to bring healing.
2. Recognize the root
When we realize our wrong reactions towards others has been repeating over and over. Then ask God, ‘Why do I react like this?’ There is an underlying cause between our past and our present reactions.
3. Know God as a good Father
Know that He has a wonderful plan for your life, instead of asking the question why should I live? God doesn’t want bad thing happen to us. Jeremiah 29:11-14 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
4. Visit a counselor.
Don’t feel inferior about yourself because you need a counselor. Be open! It is a helpful for you to find relief and identify things that you don’t understand about yourself. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He asked the people to remove the bondage from Lazarus body. We can help one another like the people helped Lazarus.
5. Count the Cost
Reflect on how deep you have been hurt. This is not for self-pity, but to see how huge the wound is and how much you need healing. Healing is painful. Settle in your mind that healing is a process. Don’t let how much you’ve been hurt undermine your life and open up the door for the enemy to enter.
6. Stop Blaming Others
We need to understand that we live in the fallen world. The enemy can use others to hurt us. But Jesus says in Matthew 5:44 ‘… love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…’ This sounds unfair but we are the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. This is opposite to the way the world sees it. Contrary to the world’s view of what God should do, God let His Son die for the sake of His enemies. It won’t help us to spend our lives blaming those who hurt us. It will only increase our anger.
7. Choose
After we know the truth, it is our responsibility to choose. When we are facing a situation that triggers the memory of a wound in the past, we don’t need to brood over it. Instead we can choose the truth. And put into action for what you’ve chosen.
A wounded person tends to hurt others. So don’t brood and hurt yourself and others; chose the truth, heal and be healed. We will be more effective in His Kingdom and experience the fullness of Jesus’ life in us.
The truth is that we are royal sons and daughters of a King. We are here in this world, not to hurt one another but to sharpen one another and to make them better people. Furthermore, what we’ve been through can bring healing to others. Healing is easy to talk about, but it takes patience to receive it. Be patient through the process of healing. God’s promises to us are the same as they were to the the Israelite in Exodus 15. When we call upon Him, He will bring healing.
“We can’t change our past but we can change our reactions.” Dr. Bruce Thompson
References: – Thompson, B. (2000) Walls Of My Heart. Colorado Spring, Colorado. Crown Ministries International.
– Father Heart of God Seminar 2016.
by K. Jelfa