Faithful Healer; Redemption
Anyone who has suffered any trauma or abuse will tell you that the physical damage heals long before the psychological and spiritual damage is resolved. It can take years, decades, and even a lifetime for those secondary wounds to heal. They can scar over at times and be numbed for long periods of time only to be reopened at the slightest new trauma. It can be a messy process and friends and family can grow impatient and even angry and relationships can be lost. There is one friend, however Who sticks closer than a brother and will never abandon any patient under His care. I know this because Jesus has been and remains that faithful caregiver in my life. In all that I have suffered either by the hand of another, by my own hand, or by the happenstance that hinders us all in a world cursed by sin, Jesus has never abandoned me.
The crucible of physical illness, the trauma of war, natural disaster, or accident are not beyond the ability of Jesus to heal. Not even the degradation of physical and sexual abuse is too personally devastating to be completely healed in Christ. Those who know Jesus will tell you that He was with them in the crucible of their trial and that He remains with them in the aftermath. I too do testify that Jesus has never failed me and that He works continually to restore me to the person my Heavenly Father created me to be. I will be that person on the day that I no longer live in a world under the curse of sin and death. This is true of all who experience God daily through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is not the healing that is like the healing of modern medicine that postpones death for a season but instead, is the healing that will end in eternal life. This is the redemption process, the sanctification of His saints that begins with the forgiveness of our sins and ends with the freedom from sin and the complete cleansing and healing of the sin-damage that before Christ brought death to all. This is what it means to be saved and it is all for the glory of God.
Isaiah 38:16-19
Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health and let me live.
Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me from the pit
of destruction;
you have put all my sins behind your back.
For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.
The living,the living--they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children
about your faithfulness.
The crucible of physical illness, the trauma of war, natural disaster, or accident are not beyond the ability of Jesus to heal. Not even the degradation of physical and sexual abuse is too personally devastating to be completely healed in Christ. Those who know Jesus will tell you that He was with them in the crucible of their trial and that He remains with them in the aftermath. I too do testify that Jesus has never failed me and that He works continually to restore me to the person my Heavenly Father created me to be. I will be that person on the day that I no longer live in a world under the curse of sin and death. This is true of all who experience God daily through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is not the healing that is like the healing of modern medicine that postpones death for a season but instead, is the healing that will end in eternal life. This is the redemption process, the sanctification of His saints that begins with the forgiveness of our sins and ends with the freedom from sin and the complete cleansing and healing of the sin-damage that before Christ brought death to all. This is what it means to be saved and it is all for the glory of God.
Isaiah 38:16-19
Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health and let me live.
Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me from the pit
of destruction;
you have put all my sins behind your back.
For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.
The living,the living--they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children
about your faithfulness.
2 Comments:
I'm glad you are able to write so freely about the things you have gone through and how you have been delivered. My wife has gone through a great deal of trauma with the sudden loss of her father in an automobile accident. There's a lot of hardship there which is difficult to put your finger on exactly, but it can definitely 'linger'. As for myself, my parents were two of the greatest parents ever. Jesus has healed a lot of abuse in my life, self-abuse.
Self-abuse is something most of us have in common. Satan is very good at making what is bad for us look good. We all have abused others to some extent also and God can heal that in us also. My parents are Christians now and He has brought them a long way. None of us have arrived yet but I am glad to have made it off the critical list.
As far as being an open book that is the testimony of Jesus Christ in my life. If I caste that aside in order to be thought highly of by others then I have become anti-christ in my thinking and very prideful. I've been there and can still drift back in that direction but God is healing me of my pride, as well.
I'll pray for your wife and ask God to fill the void in her life with His own presense and also give her many bright and comforting memories of her Dad.
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