Freedom within
Freedom comes through healing, and healing requires forgiveness, often of ourselves.
Psalm 34:18 “ the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit”
Is this you? If so, just know that healing and restoration is possible. But, We have a responsibility in our healing. Jesus asks the paralytic man on the mat in John 5:6 a penetrating question: “Do you want to get well?" It’s easy to play the victim sometimes but to get well is costly. We have to be willing to be vulnerable and do the work required for healing to take place. It’s tempting to play the victim and just lay there and anesthetize the pain rather than confront it. Playing the victim absolve you of all responsibility. You can get all the sympathy and it can be a comfortable place to remain. But it’s a false comfort, trapping you in a cycle of pain and stagnation. We can grow lazy in our response to pain. It takes an action step to move beyond that to face and address the pain rather than succumb to it.
Here’s the truth: We all have been wounded. Wounds create scars. Scars tell stories. Stories matter! God never wastes a wound, and every scar becomes a sermon. every heartbreak becomes a doorway to higher grace.! Our spiritual life begins with our acceptance of our wounded self. We must be vulnerable enough to admit our wounds. God never wastes a tear. He uses all of our tears to help others. Psalm 56:8 “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”- Nothing is wasted is God's Kingdom economy.
The key to freedom and healing is forgiveness. Forgiveness is warfare dressed in humility. Forgiveness isn’t surrendering the right to hurt or pretending it didn’t hurt, but it is giving it over to God and allowing him room to deal with it how He may. It's removing the burden from us and placing it with God. Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
When we forgive, we opened the doors for heaven’s forgiveness to flood our own lives, and that sets us free. When we forgive, our scars become testimonies of God‘s transformative power. Rather than reminding us of pain, they remind us of healing and freedom that is taking place. They also serve as a testament to others who are struggling with similar wounds, showing them that healing is possible. Forgiveness triumphs over resentment.
