Did you know that the devil seeks to use your pain to stunt you spiritually? Did you know that Jesus loves to talk to you when you are hurting? His words bring healing. Let’s see how this works.

You’re small-minded!

Last August we were doing a session on inner healing. During that session, Carol shared a memory from high school.

“Parochial.” That is what my home room teacher called me. And she said it all the way across the room, loud enough for everyone to hear. Parochial means “small-minded.” Her words stung, and her tone and facial expression communicated disdain for me. I felt embarrassed, ashamed, and minimized, wondering what I’d possibly done to deserve such judgement. Looking back, I can recognize the impact this has had upon my life. I felt shut down in a group setting. Even today, I hold back at times from sharing what I have to give in a group.

This is a perfect example of the Lord bringing Carol back to what some people call a “root memory.” Root memories have a powerful, shaping influence on our lives, often negatively. In root memories, lies get implanted. If the devil can shut us down in childhood, then we don’t live out our influence as children of the King in adulthood. I believe the Lord brought that memory to mind because he doesn’t want Carol to be shut down. He wants her to offer her gifts to others.

I’m not enough and nobody likes me

Along the same lines, Sarah shared how she processed a difficult experience.

I had a terrible team ministry experience when I was looking at different cross-cultural service opportunities. The team was in the storming phase and other members viewed me with suspicion. Ultimately they rejected me. I am still really sad that it didn’t work out. As I was reflecting on this with the Lord, the Lord brought me back to a childhood memory when I was in kindergarten or first grade.

I wanted to play with some other children on the playground. I was trying so hard to make it work, but it wasn’t going well. The playground attendant said, “Can’t you see that they don’t want to play with you? Go play by yourself or play with someone else.”

There was a clump of trees nearby, close to the road. I thought, OK, I’ll go play by myself in the trees. I headed for the trees. Then the playground attendant yelled at me for being too close to the road.

That was just a very painful memory. I haven’t thought about it in absolutely years. The root lie in both the team ministry experience and the playground situation is “I am not enough, and nobody likes me.” What I sense God saying to me in these moments is, “You might not be enough, but I am always enough, and I like you.”

I once read a book called Hurt People Hurt People. So many people just respond to pain in their lives and pass it on to other people.

As I was reflecting on the team experience and the playground situation, this was one of the first times I heard God speaking in his still small voice. He said to me, “Healed people heal people and I am the God of healing.”

Thanks, Carol and Sarah for sharing your stories.

A simple inner healing process

There are many ways to experience inner healing. Here is one simple way to deal with a difficult emotion that many people have found helpful.

• Connect with Jesus in a happy memory. The joy and gratitude from the happy memory prepares your heart to hear Jesus’s voice.
• Identify the painful emotion you are experiencing. Ask Jesus to take you to the first time you experienced this emotion.
• In the painful memory ask Jesus what lie you believed. Ask him what truth he wants to replace the lie with.
• If you get stuck, simply return to your initial happy memory.

That’s one simple process. But it works so much better when you have someone to do it with. Why don’t you join one of the next cohorts?

Photo by Юлія Дубина on Unsplash