Healing is Simple, But Not Easy

October 30, 2014

You may have noticed a pattern in this series on abuse recovery:

I always direct people who need healing back to the Healer.

Our Creator, our Redeemer, our Provider, the Great I AM . . . you remember. His name is Jesus.

He is the only one who can heal us.

Sometimes it sounds like healing is a simple thing—just take your pain and despair to Him and let Him heal you. Well, that’s essentially what happens. However, it certainly isn’t easy. Not as a rule. Healing is just too complicated to ever make that claim. The more severe the abuse, the more complicated it gets.

So many things influence our healing path.

If we have trust issues (and who doesn’t?), we’ll have problems allowing Jesus access to our feelings and our memories. I’ve dealt with a number of people who are afraid to look at their painful memories because they’ve experienced the pain of remembering without resolution and don’t want to go through that again.

But when we invite Jesus into our memories, He brings His truth and His healing. He won’t leave us stuck in the pain. And He doesn’t make us go through the entire memory, only the part that pertains to the lies we believe. The lies that still cause pain.

Another influence that hinders our healing is in the area of self-contempt. We believe somehow we deserved what happened. Of course, the adult in us understands that nobody deserves that kind of treatment, but the inner child still does. And the inner child influences the emotions.

We can easily be influenced by the comments and attitudes of those around us, especially family members. They may not react well to the changes they see in us. They want the old controllable kid back. They are uncomfortable with us being healed and becoming the people we were meant to be.

So, what are the most important attitudes to cultivate on the healing journey?

Trust in God. (In God We Trust?) And trust in a “coach”. This can be a counselor, minister, anyone who can help you trust God and listen to His voice.
Acceptance of temporary pain for permanent healing. This process is surgery of the soul. We all know surgery causes temporary pain but is imperative in certain cases.
And hope in a future that He has called good. (God Has Good Plans for You). Jesus lives in the past, present, and future. He knows the path you’ll have to take and is there to guide you.

Jesus has never rejected you. He has never taken His eyes off of you. He saw what happened, though He had to honor the free will of evildoers. He hurt with you then and He still hurts with you.