[Excerpt from Beyond Pretend: A Sheep’s Guide to the Universe!]
Don’t miss this one: Wounds are part of the path.
So let God heal your wounds.
We get beat up.
Beat up for doing good. Beat up for doing bad. Wounds are part of life. To maintain our spiritual health as we follow Christ, we must allow God to heal our wounds, all of them. God’s healing is necessary in his sanctification process. Do you remember that word – sanctification – from our living in a post-Eden world discussion? God’s transformation process (sanctification) is the part of our salvation package that he works out in the events, circumstances and details of our lives.
- He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24 ESV).
God’s navigation process ...
God’s healing is also necessary to his navigation process, his guiding and directing of our lives. In his wisdom he works his plan and process through our choices, good and bad. We don’t surprise God. He has made all the necessary provision through the shed blood of Jesus to transform us and bring us to himself. No feelings of guilt should ever hinder the course of your life or his navigation process.
As an example I would give the confession of sin.
God directs us to confess our sins to him. As he steers us through life, confession of sin is necessary to keep us in his will. We may not feel like God would forgive us again, but we continue on course by following his truth though it is contrary to our feelings. Guilt would have us make a u-turn from God’s forgiveness and cleansing because we don’t deserve it. But we continue to navigate the course God sets before us based on the coordinates of his words. We should never quit following Christ because of our guilt, real or imagined. Our decisions should never be based on guilt, false or otherwise. We trust God for the direction of our lives.
- If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us (1 John 1:8-10 ESV).
You may protest.
But what if I keep coming to God again and again confessing my sins? Duh. He will do what he says he will do. He will forgive you and cleanse you. Did you not notice in the text who John says is faithful and just? He writes that “he [God] is faithful and just.” God is faithful and just, not you, not me. Well, we are sometimes, but the promise of the text hinges on God’s faithfulness. The point is that life injures its participants. Even if the injury is self-inflicted (sin), our clear course of action is to come to God and trust him to do what he what he says he will do. Let God be God, and he will be!
- He only is my Rock and my salvation; he is my high tower; I will not be greatly moved (Psalms 62:2 BBE).
No, life is not so gentle at times.
In fact this world can be very harsh and cruel. But let God heal your wounds as “he is the healer of the brokenhearted. He is the one who bandages their wounds” (Psalms 147:3 GW). Believe what he says and take everything to him – hurtful words, broken relationships, unfair treatment on the job, racial and social slurs, discouragement from an illness, financial pressures or a spiritual and emotional beating from the dark forces. Everything. Let him show you his greatness in the time of your greatest need.
Let God be God, and he will be!
And that is not always so easy, especially when it seems that what is right and just has been twisted every which way but right and fair, and God has let us down again. We have all felt that way, that maybe we have wasted our time trying to be faithful to God, and even though we are trying to do the right thing, we look around and see the people who have no care for God, no thought for doing what is right, doing better than we are. Asaph outlines his struggle with this in Psalm 73. Confused and discouraged, on the verge of giving up, he finds his rescue as he comes into the holy place of God.
- But when I tried to understand this, it was too difficult for me. Only when I came into God’s holy place did I finally understand … (Psalms 73:16-17 GW).
