Healing With God

This is one of the hardest things to do in this world. I've walked through something like this in myself and with people I know who are trying to heal in their heart but are just stuck in the past.

"It's like it just keeps popping into my head."
"The memories won't go away."
"If time heals everything, why hasn't it healed yet?"
"I can't let it go."
"I keep getting reminded about it from all this music, all these places, these movies, times, etc. I just want it to go away."

I think most of us have thought things like these sentences at some time in our lives. We are in interesting position. Jesus called us gods and goddesses (John 10:34; cf Psalm 82:6). We were meant to live in unending pleasure and intimacy with Jesus, our Source, and each other. And yet instead we were born into a fallen world and have been hurt, taken advantage of, and we've done unto others as they have done to us in revenge. And in the midst of the storm, it can feel like our light, who we are inside and the holy and good God has made us into, can start to flicker in and out as the dark rain pours down. In these times, it's easy to let go of our God. But we can't. He is called our Savior for a reason. He saves us.

It's hard to have intimacy with God and with someone you love here when you've been hurt. There are waves of guilt, pain, darkness that breech the love and intimacy we should enjoy. For some people, it can be hard to imagine intimacy with God, a rapturous spiritual ecstasy, one that surpasses physical intimacy here when they have been so taken advantage of physically in hurtful relationships. And so deriving spiritual intimacy with Jesus but still having those scars is very difficult. For many, it's just "getting past what happened" and if that ever occurred life would be good.

Healing can require many things. No two wounds are the same. Some require vulnerability and opening up to someone who is trusted (a spouse, a friend, someone else). Others require deep introspection and must be handled internally. All healing requires Jesus' Holy Spirit. And only through him can we find real healing. There does exist a healing that brings about complete destruction and separation of the pain and the wound and the evil done to you and justice will be brought about through Jesus Christ and the cross. God promised us this for his coming Kingdom:

The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Isaiah 65:18

It, whatever it is for you, will be gone and never remembered again. Not by God, not by you. The cross and punishment Jesus took for us is above all pain, all hurt, all guilt, all loss and it takes in whatever has happened to us and it makes it dissolve in his blood. And we are made new. You are made new. And you will be renewed.

Inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)

What are some ways to pursue healing by our Love Jesus Christ?

1) Replace the pain with our Lover and life to come with him.
"Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things." Colossians 3:2.

Replace those thoughts and mental movies and pictures of what happened with intimacy with our Lord. With closeness to him. Run into his arms and he will draw near to you. Read Song of Songs and put yourself and God into the story. Read the prophets and see the life to come with our Father and our family. Throw away the old things that remind you of what happened and instead surround yourself with the gifts God has given you. Ask him to send you little love letters throughout the day and just let him woo you and let you indulge in his love. Let his love cleanse you and draw you near to him to heal you. Be open and vulnerable with your God and Jesus will sweetly heal your broken heart.


2) Grieve. This is oh so good for us.

It is better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting. Ecclesiastes 7:2

We need to acknowledge the wound and that it mattered. It mattered because we matter. You matter. Your heart is important. You are an image of God, beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your heart is more treasured by God than anything else in the universe. When you get hurt, it matters. It matters to Jesus. Let the tears come. Get some time alone and grieve. Cry and let the pain out and embrace it. This is good, this is purifying, this allows the wound to be cleansed so our Beloved God can heal it.

Jesus grieves for us. Romantic love is passionate. Love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like the flame of Yahweh. Song of Songs 8:6. And when that fire is disrupted, it hurts. Jesus feels the same love for us. God gets sad. He hurts. He cries. He weeps and mourns when we hurt him. When we hate him, turn against him, not desire him, leave him.

Read this excerpt from God's mourning over his lost loves:

Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people. They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me, declares the LORD. - Jeremiah 9:1-3 (NIV)

That sounds familiar to me. It sounds like something I could have written at some points in my life. It sounds similar to the story of others. It's our story at some point when we get hurt by the object of our love. Grieving is not something we have to overcome in order in order to finish the path God has for us, grieving is an essential process we go through while we're on the path for different seasons in life.

3) Forgiveness. We must in the end have forgiveness. We must forgive those who hurt us. Yes, this one may take the longest, but we are on a path to become like the Son's character. We are going to marry him. We are his forever. And he died for us to take away our sins. We could not be unforgiving and our God forgive him else we will be like the unforgiving servant. (Read Matthew 18:21-35) This could take a long time for you and your heart, but it must be our end goal in the healing process. Maybe this involves telling the person who hurt you that you forgive them. Maybe it doesn't. You will know from the Spirit leading you.

As a brother in Christ I just want to send encouragement to you if you are hurting and going through the healing process in Christ. I hope our Beloved God will bring it to full healing and for it to be gone forever very soon. Remember, even in the midst of the storm Jesus calmed it by telling it to stop. He can do that for you also :)