Healing close-range pain (1)

In paintballing, it's the close-range shots that hurt the most. It's the same with life stuff: we get wounded if someone close to us, or someone we trust, turns out to be not what we thought or wanted. Betrayal stings (King David felt it - read his story in Psalm 55). Even if we're not the type to admit to feeling 'wounded' when stuff goes wrong, it still affects us. Betrayal and other messy life-stuff throws us off balance.

And, not dealing with pain properly affects our relationship with God. This may be hard to read but... not taking the time to work through our pain separates us from the fullness of God's grace (see Matthew 6:14-15). Also, not dealing with hurt can lead us to not fully trust him. We may not be yelling at the sky, or raging at God, but perhaps we feel distant in our relationship with him. Whether we realise it or not, what hurts in our hearts affects how we relate to God and others.

There's only one thing that fixes close-range pain. Honesty, with God, ourselves and others. It's okay to feel hurt. It's not un-Christian and it's not petty. It's human. And, guess what, we're human. Let's learn to hand over our pain and hard stuff to God.



So what now? Give yourself a heart assessment. Is there anything sitting, undealt with, in your heart? Talk to God about it, 100% honestly. Keep nothing back. Invite him to heal you.





— SCRIPTURE —

'It was my closest friend, the one I trusted most.' Psalm 55:13 CEV
— SOULFOOD —

Eze 20-21, Matt 22:15-22, Ps 111 , Pro 19:18-20