Good morning! Today our Lord is encouraging us in Matthew 8:16-17:
“When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.’”
Matthew 8:16-17
So here I am again, awake in the middle of the night, not well, and not praying for myself. It’s a life pattern that I have tried to overcome with short-lived success. Why is it that I can pray for throngs of folks with all kinds of ailments, needs, and addictions, but my own needs fall to the bottom of the list? Are most people like this, or do I continue to listen to the well-worn tapes of my abusive childhood that say, “You won’t amount to anything. You will grow up to be an unhealthy woman working in a factory and married to a drunk like your aunts .” ?
I will never forget the junior high Sunday School teacher, Mr. Ray, who told me that he was sure I would go to college and have a career. There were a couple of high school teachers who spoke into this same thread and encouraged me to break the cycle. With sheer determination, I left that life behind, but I still struggle to love myself by taking care of myself in prayer.
Healing of the effects of past hurts—wounds and grief from loss or hurtful memories like guilt, shame, trauma, and depression—is commonly referred to as inner healing. The memories don’t go away, but we can be released from the effects of bondage to our emotions. Counseling and prayer can help us apply God’s grace and forgiveness in areas that hold us back from the fullness of our Lord’s plan for our lives. When we can leave pains at the foot of the Cross and prayerfully decide not to pick them up again, we are taking steps towards the victory of living fully for God.
Father God has been so faithful in guiding me through the redemptive maze towards my True Self—who He made me to be. Inner healing requires that we accept the value of being made in God’s image.
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’”
Genesis 1:26
God is a spiritual being with an existence too grand to comprehend, so it isn’t that our bodies resemble Him. It’s our spirit, our inner man, that the Triune God of the Universe made to resemble Himself. God wants to heal us, remove the sludge and grime of humanity from our hearts, and bring us to the fullness of Kingdom glory so that we look like Papa on the inside—children of God Most High!
Jesus loves you! Me, too