Which is more painful? To live without hope or to catch a glimpse of hope only to have it disappear? Often, this is our experience on the eve of redemption. Certainly, God is not a fickle redeemer. He is faithful. But if we expect redemption to be mainly about comfort, we may be disappointed when—at least for a season—it brings more pain.
Or you may have come to God with a life that was a mess with sin and were relieved to find that he accepts you in Christ, just as you are. But in time, you were confronted with the reality that some of those sins from your former life still had a powerful hold on you. Some new Christians at this point are so discouraged they question whether they were ever saved at all.
Or you may have found that after years of harboring the pain of abuse in secret, it’s time to talk about it. You may have to revisit some painful memories or confront someone who has harmed you. The battle to decide to speak out is pain unto itself, intensifying the pain of the original abuse. Maybe you’ve made your secrets known, and your confidants, rather than comforting and protecting you, have hurt you further by suggesting that you keep quiet or have even blamed you for stirring up trouble by digging up the past.
You may have developed various means of dealing with what’s been done to you—self-protection, hypersensitivity, catastrophizing to grab others’ attention, never trusting anyone or depending too much on their affirmation, getting even, withholding yourself from others, becoming the aggressor, or self-medicating with any number of substances or pleasures. In short, you may have constructed a comprehensive manner of life for surviving apart from God (Eph. 4:22).
In delivering you, God wants to show you that this manner of life, which may be all you’ve ever known, is actually death. He wants you to walk away. But walking away from the only life you’ve known can feel like death. This is all very risky. It may feel like it’s getting worse before it gets better.
The grip of sin does not loosen easily. Chances are that your sin has been some form of refuge for you, some means of comfort. But that comfort was merely bait on a hook, and now you’re being reeled in, you’re enslaved. In delivering us from sin, God breaks the chains of slavery and beckons us to freedom. But faithful obedience is very costly; he calls us to abandon everything we have clung to in our sin, and pulling out the hook of false comfort can be very painful.
We have been bound in darkness; in redemption, God calls us into his light. This can feel like coming out of a dark cave into a midday sun—our eyes may hurt at first as they adjust to the light. How can we be so sure we know what the picture of redemption should look like, when we’ve been so blind?
Hat Tip: Crossway Books
Ok, God also works through Doctors and medicine. Did you know that when you have post traumatic stress disorder it alters the structure of your brain? It actually shrinks your hippocampus. There is a difference between emotional and mental healing. No one would tell someone to get right with God to level out their blood sugar when they are diabetic. A lot of the symptoms you mentioned are symptoms of a brain disorder. I am a Christian through and through. In fact, I have a ministry in my church that reaches out to people with a mental illness and their families.It is very important to realize that sometimes it is more than emotional and that while God will heal our spirit always, he may not always choose to cure our illnesses, whether they are of other organs in the body or the brain. Deliverance is an important part of healing from anything, but that is just the beginning, and sometimes, when our brains have a biological abnormality, we need the medicines that God helped us to develop and the supports and goal oriented plans that help us to grow and build. I have people who love the Lord more than anyone I know and have given everything they have to give, but God has a plan for each one of us, and the freedom we dream of may need more than the spiritual aspect to come to full fruition.
ReplyDeleteI hope you actually publish this. Many "Christian" sites won't because it doesn't fit their theories.
Yes Kim, I know that, but it's good to remind others.
ReplyDeleteI have read this. Very good book. I love the idea of a journey from bondage to freedom guided by God. There is a great quote about how God gives us peace, joy, etc. I'll have to find it. Love your blog - I need to start updating mine again.
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