A hurting heart...

Until a hurt is healed it remains a wound inside of the heart. Addressing hurt is uncomfortable-it takes work. Many ignore hurts reasoning time has passed & there's nothing that can be done. It's true time has passed...but the hurt hasn't. Until a person addresses their hurt-they're chained to the past. An unresolved hurt is as alive as the day it happened, but because it has many layers of life on it, it's not always identified: this leads people to believe they got over it. Many don't want to acknowledge that someone they trusted hurt them...because really, it makes the hurt feel even worse-it's insult to injury. Until the all of the hurt is brought into the light...complete healing can't happen & complete release to move forward is impossible. 

Christians tend to Christian-ese hurts by minimizing what a person did & deny the full impact of the pain. Minimizing keeps a person chained to the experience, unable to live in the present & certainly unable to have a hope for the future. Many of their thoughts & actions operate from the perspective of their past experience-keeping the view of the present obscured. Jesus came to save, bind up wounds & bring us out of  darkness...to heal us! To heal-we have to bring our hurts to Him; completely surrendering our entire heart, mind & soul. Releasing to Jesus who hurt you is the first step of recovery-then releasing what the person did to you. You can't heal from what you won't release! Many believe forgiving is dismissing the harm...but forgiving means you will no longer carry the harm in your heart. When you verbally give the release...forgiving the person who caused harm; you allow Jesus to physically remove the chains that kept you bound to them & the hurt they imposed. Next, give Jesus all the hurt you experienced surrounding the original hurt...empty yourself of it-purge every last drop. While you're doing this a flood of emotions will come to you-it's all those years of denying, holding back, trying to prove you were good enough & pushing down tears. This is grief-recognizing what was lost, stolen or never given. Grief validates what you experienced-it says you matter & what happened to you mattered. Then the love of Jesus will come in like a flood, crashing waves of His healing pouring into every chamber, crevice and opening...shining His light of love making sure nothing is overlooked-filling up every area in you, overflowing the sides & finally engulfing all of you.

Until His love floods us we're left in darkness-prisoners of our own pain-  Releasing hurts, surrendering them to Jesus, forgiving those that imposed the hurt then grieving is the only way to complete healing. People who refuse this process, will go through life with wounds in their heart-never experiencing the full promises of God. They impose the care of their wounds onto others; wanting them to make up for the hurt they encountered. Only Jesus can put back in us what was taken by another or give to us what another didn't give. Don't fall into to the trap of trying to give back to another what was taken from them or try to give them what they should've received; you can't, that's a job only Jesus can carry out. 

We're not left without  hope...we're promised to overcome & be completely restored. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom-Jesus' love restores completely, healing every hurt ever experienced...will you receive His love into your heart today & be completely healed?  (Isa 61:1, Joel 2:25, 2 Cor 3:17) 10/2012CIFL-LMM #heartwounds #christianinsightforlife www.facebook.com