No one likes
to face pain. When I have lived through suffering, my natural instinct is to
move on and try to forget it. What may be my natural instinct is not His. He
never wastes my hurt or what I have faced in my life, and He does not want me to
just bury it. He wants me to use it for His glory.
How He longs
to use the pain I've experienced—the things that I regret—the highs and the
lows—the fears and the failures—the very things I want to hide from—to help
others! He wants my life open and exposed so others might find freedom from
their own pain, and I might discover healing for mine.
Open and
exposed is a very hard place to be! I want to build a wall to protect myself
from my own pain. But building a wall doesn't protect me. It imprisons my heart.
It imprisons my spirit. It imprisons healing of not only my own wounds, but
those of others. My wall turns my heart into a heart of stone because, in
closing myself off, I have shut out the Holy Spirit.
However,
when I allow that wall of false protection to tumble down, the Lord turns my
pain into victory not only for myself, but for others. “I'll give you a new
heart, “the Lord promises, “and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you
your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
A heart that yields completely to the Holy Spirit is a heart of tender
“spiritual flesh”. It is a heart that is malleable, vulnerable, and not afraid
of the pain that often accompanies healing. It is heart that is ready to face
the hurt of the past or the present head-on, and allow the Holy Spirit to do
whatever is necessary. Willing to deal with whatever must be dealt with, this
heart trusts that the Lord who has exposed the pain is capable of healing all
that has caused it.
"Now the Lord is the Spirit,” Paul imparts, “and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). The Holy Spirit is able to liberate
me from any wall that I erect, but first I must allow Him to liberate my
heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment