| The section on Divine Health contains
the following links:
Healing
Healing Your
Past
Healing Year by
Year
Hurts in the
Womb
Early
Childhood
The Teenage
Years
Early Adult
Years
Middle
Adulthood
The Twilight
Years
Healing
the Generations
Healing
Prayers
Pray It
Forward
Pray it
Forward Prayers
|
The following reflections are taken from the writings of Bob
and Debbie Gass in The Word for
Today, a FREE daily devotional and of tremendous value to have to hand
each day.
Healing
your past – Part 1
" DON’T KEEP GOING OVER OLD
HISTORY…I AM ABOUT TO DO SOMETHING BRAND-NEW" Isaiah 43 : 18
(TM)
Cremate your past – don’t
embalm it! Dr Harold Bloomfield writes: “Unresolved emotional pain wreaks
havoc on your immune system, cardiac function, hormone levels and other
physical functions. We must make peace with our past, because our life may
literally depend on it!” Challenging words! Here are four suggestions for
dealing with your past:
- reframe it. Ask yourself,
“How did it make me stronger? What do I know now that I didn’t know
then?” Be a learner, not a loser
- break the shackles of
shame. Shame isn’t feeling bad over what you’ve done, it’s feeling
ashamed of who you are. It’s lethal! When God created you in His image
He said, “I like it! It’s very good.” (See Genesis 1:31). Start agreeing
with Him!
- arrest the acid drip of
regret. Stop punishing yourself with the ‘if onlys’. David said, “Happy
is the person whose sins are forgiven…whom the Lord does not consider
guilty…” (Psalm 32:1-2 NCV). Forgive yourself, God has! When He looks at
you through the finished work of Calvary, you look better to Him than
you do to yourself!
- move from grief to gain.
Healing takes time, so expect some anger, fear, and sadness. Don’t
disown them – they’re part of the healing process. But don’t adopt them
either; know when it’s time to move on. You can’t walk backwards into
the future, and the future God has for you contains more happiness than
any past you can remember!
Healing your past –
part 2
" I HAVE PLANS…TO GIVE YOU
THE FUTURE YOU HOPE FOR. " Jeremiah 29 : 11 (TM)
Three further
suggestions:
- practise acceptance. While
working in the Congo as a missionary, Helen Roseveare was brutally
raped. Later she said, “I must ask myself the question, ‘Can I thank God
for trusting me with this experience, even if He never tells me why?’”
The secret of trust doesn’t lie in answers, it lies in acceptance! It’s
knowing that in the midst of whatever has happened, is happening or will
happen – God’s in control! Either you fix your mind on that and
determine to laugh again, or you whine your way through life complaining
that you never got a fair deal
- bury the past or live with
its ghosts. Rehashing old hurts is like watching the same movie over and
over again, hoping for a different ending. Learn from it and move on.
You don’t drown by falling into the water; you drown by staying
there!
get
out of ‘the blame game’. Blame is a waste of time! When you blame
yourself, you multiply your guilt, rivet yourself to the past and
decrease your already low self-esteem. When you blame God, you cut
yourself off from your single source of power, doubt replaces trust and
you put down roots of bitterness that make you cynical. When you blame
others, you enlarge the distance between them and you, losing the only
option that works –
forgiveness. |
