Healing… the word that implies a troubled past, a broken heart, and lessons learned the hard way. The word that signifies an intense journey through grief, pain, and regret. It is a process with the opportunity to choose between freedom and bondage and it is mandatory for forward movement in our lives. Often, healing is the first objective in the aftermath of traumas and hurts but becomes our last choice of action. Why?? It requires a willingness to let go and dive deep into the issues that have caused us pain. Having a willing spirit is the catalyst for healing. Sometimes we need to have the ability to see our own faults that led us further down the destructive path. Other times, we need to accept the past as what it was and not what we conjured up in our minds. Or we may need to be willing to let go of the hurts and the victim mentality, no matter how justifiable it may be to hold onto them. There is no doubt that each of us have our own unique story, with healing journeys that are vastly different. However, everyone’s healing process starts with our ability to humble ourselves before the Lord, and willingly submit to His plans and truth over our lives. We must be prepared to call our feelings, opinions, and perspectives into obedience under the truth of the Word. Obedience requires sacrifice of one’s own desires. Speaking for myself, I know in the past I have enjoyed hiding behind the offenses done against me, so I have an excuse for my own responses. I have enjoyed holding onto the pain because I do not know how to separate it from my identity. In a sense, the hurts had become my identity. Yet, if I have learned anything about healing, it is that it requires sacrifice of those offenses and the effects of them in my life. We cannot hold onto the pain of the past, and with the same hands, grasp the promises of the future. We must let it go. We must yield the pain, the lies, and the damage to God, and embrace His beautiful promises over us. This requires us acknowledging that the way we feel about the carnage in our lives does not reflect the authoritative truth of God. The bleak situations do not equate to failed promises of God. We must put our utmost faith in the Lord and fully believe that His word is true. We must place our hope and trust in the Lord’s character, not only in His ability to “fix” our problems. We must let our spirit man arise and with boldness proclaim the promises of God over our valley of dry bones. We must see with our spiritual eyes and prophecy things that aren’t as though they are. We must require our situations to bow to the truth of God which says that His word does not return void, but it accomplishes everything it was meant to. We must tell the enemy that he might have had plans for destruction, but our God is in the restoration business. We must remind our soul that our God has never failed, and He never will. He has never left us nor forsaken us. He has plans to prosper us, not to harm us, but to give us a hope and a future. We must use the Word as our weapon to combat the lies of the enemy. We must be willing to lay down the damage the enemy so badly wants us to hold onto. Because when we finally do… when we finally lay down the baggage and accept the yolk and burden of the Lord instead, we will find true healing and freedom. Healing lies on the other side of our willingness to sacrifice our pain. So how will you show your willing spirit to the Lord? In what ways is He calling you to be obedient? What is He asking you to sacrifice? I encourage you to be mindful of these things and to truly seek God’s truth in relevance to your situations. It may not be easy, but it will be worth it.

I’m praying for you all!