Have you ever tried to hide behind a wall you have created for protection? Have you ever worn a mask so someone else will not see what you are going through? I have! Once, on a day when my heart was broken, a friend asked if I was alright, and I answered, “I'm fine”. I never once considered that perhaps God had sent my friend to help me at my point of need, and I held my mask firmly in place. Perhaps I had missed the very healing God wished to impart. Maybe you at times have also missed yours. I know that the Lord does not want us to expose our pain to just anyone, but He does want us sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit to know when He has sent someone that we can trust. He longs for us to know when we have the freedom to open up our heart.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit wants us to open our heart to someone who is deeply hurt by either something in their past or something that has them bound in the present. Do we hold the mask in place, and not share our own pain and experience because we are afraid of our own vulnerability? If we do, there is no freedom because the Holy Spirit is held out by our mask. Perhaps we have denied not only our own healing, but also healing for someone else.
"We are not like Moses," Paul imparts, "who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:13-18).
Do we mask our hearts and not allow the Holy Spirit freedom to transform us? He wants to heal us, but He can’t if we hide behind self-imposed walls of protection. Christ has the power to set us free from the “old covenant veil” we hold in place so others don’t see our vulnerability and pain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my mind and heart dull and hardened. I don’t want to wear a mask to hide joy that has faded because I don’t want to appear less than I have been. I want to be real and trust that the Lord who exposes my pain will also heal that which I have entrusted to Him. Where the Holy Spirit is, I have the liberty, the freedom, the vulnerability, the trust, the faith, and the purpose to open my heart. In my giving, He will bring healing to those He has entrusted to me. And also bring healing to me.
Lynn Hampton Lacher
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