I need
therapy. I admit it. Every day I am reminded that I cannot do life
on my own. I am not strong enough. I have believed lies, been wounded in the
battle for my soul, and encountered grief deeper than my ability to cope.
This
realization has been heavy on my heart lately, as more and more things in life
have gone wrong, as more and more battles have been to the death, threatening
the lives of young hearts and lives with so much potential.
And it is in
these moments that God has brought to remembrance a Scripture I’ve known for
years, but never fully appreciated – Isaiah 9:6. It says:
“For to us a child
is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace.”
I love that it begins by saying the government – the weight of
responsibility, decision making and leadership – rests on His shoulders. It’s not mine to carry or be crushed
beneath. It’s His. He protects us from it. I am not saying that we do not have responsibilities
in this life, but I am saying that
those who trust Him are not responsible for carrying the weight of it, the
stress, the pain of it on their own.
And then, Isaiah 9:6 goes on, whispers deeper comfort. It tells us that He is our Wonderful
Counselor – and my hearts sighs with relief.
A Counselor, someone to talk to, to trust – that is our God. He is the Counselor who listens to us, who
cares for us, and unlike so many people in our lives who ask us how we are without
really caring about the answer, He’s a good listener. Psalm 22:24, in the Message paraphrase, says,
“He has never let you down, never looked the other way when you were being
kicked around. He has never wandered off
to do His own thing; he has been right
there, listening.” I love that. He’s there in the middle of the pain, aware
of what’s happening, listening to us, hurting with us, ready to help.
And because He’s there, He is deeply aware of the wounds we have suffered
and left untreated, the hurts that have lied to us about who we are and what we
are worth. Like a Great Counselor, he
points us to the unresolved pain in our past, the things that like gaping
wounds are sabotaging our ability to cope and form healthy relationships with
those around us, to walk in the fullness
of His calling. And like any great
doctor, He longs to heal us, but He cannot do it without our permission. Isaiah 1:5-6 points to this. He says of us, “Your whole head and heart are
already sick and aching. From the bottom
of your feet to the top of your head, every part of your body has wounds, cuts,
and open sores. You have not taken care
of them. Your wounds have not been
cleaned and bandaged.”[1] Notice He does not promise to heal what we do
not release to Him. He only points it
out and waits … to see what you will allow Him to do. So what lies have you believed? What hurts are you still carrying around, gaping
and painful? Are they things like this? Do you believe:
·
I am not
enough and simultaneously too much for anyone to love.
·
The dreams
of my heart are impossible and scary, and if I tell anyone, they’ll think I
am scary and impossible.
·
If I trust
anyone enough to let them close, I will only have to say good-bye to them, so
it’s better to keep them at arms’ length.
·
What I can
do for people is more important than who I can be for them.
If so, it is important for you to know that is not true of you. It’s not true of me either. There is pain in this life; don’t get me
wrong. Things are not as they should be –
of course. This is a fallen world, and we
who are mighty in the Spirit yearn for something more, which will always bring
a sort of heartache and pain. But we can
live in the freedom of who God designed us to be. We can live without the wounds we have
carried – if we let Him restore us.
In trusting Him to heal us, however, we are also going to have to trust
Him to break down the defenses we have built to keep Him out. In Isaiah 22, God talks to us about the walls
we built, the pools and moats we used to keep people out. And in verse 11, He says, “You did all this
to protect yourselves, but you did not trust the God who made all these things …”
The walls we have built – walls of pride, intellectual prowess, cowardice, and
isolation – show an astonishing lack of faith in the God who called us, who
created us, who destined us for great things.
Have we forgotten who we are? Who
He is? Have we forgotten who delivered
us? Who is willing to heal us, to set us
free? Quit protecting yourself from
freedom, from love, from all that He is offering us and let Him up! (I can say that so forcefully because I am
saying it to myself as well.)
And once our defense mechanisms are gone, we have to do the scariest
thing of all – we have to quit hiding.
It is vulnerable to stand without walls, to stand honestly before God
and before the people in our lives. So
instead, we have contrived a million ways to hide. We hide behind our work, behind our anger,
behind our education, behind our busyness.
But Proverbs 14:13 warns us. It
says, “Laughter might hide your sadness.
But when the laughter is gone, the sadness remains.”[2] The pain behind our hiding doesn’t go away
because we pretend, because we deaden ourselves to what we’re feeling, because
we hope no one will no notice the pain behind our smile. We may think it means nothing to hide our
pain from the world. We are simply being
self-sufficient, not wanting to be a burden to those around us. However, the more we hide from others, the
less we share with others. If we hide our pain, we can’t truly share our
joy, as Psalm 40:10 hints at. In the ERV
Bible, it says, “I told about the good things you did. I did
not hide these things in my heart. I
spoke of how you can be trusted to save us.
I did not hide your love and
loyalty from those in the great assembly.”
You see, we have to let ourselves share our pain before we can share God’s
victories.
Let God counsel you. Let His
wisdom wash over you. Open yourselves up
before Him. Let Him revisit the painful
places. Let Him heal. And then share what He is healing … so you
can have freedom. So you can be a
greater witness to His might and power.
So that You can live in the freedom and fullness of His calling for
you. Relish it.
Comments
Post a Comment