Alive Again - Healing the Hurt

There are so many people in this world who are hurt and broken. They might be in a marriage that is dead, they have lost their job, looking for love they find themselves pregnant and alone, in an effort to ease their pain they are addicted to alcohol or drugs....this list could go on and on. These people might be you, your neighbor, your co-worker, the barista who fixes your Starbucks every morning. You sit next to them or pass them everyday. There are so many people in this world who are hurt and broken, who need Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord Who Heals).

God heals our hurts in many ways. He can bring comfort and peace when we think we can find none. All we need to do is to turn to Him, trust in Him and let Him be the Lord Who Heals, Jehovah-Rapha.

First, God heals our hurts by His presence. God will never leave us. He is with us in our darkest hours. Hang on to that knowledge and allow Him to walk with you and give you the strength you need to overcome anything.

Isaiah 43:2 (New International Version)
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

Psalm 23:4 (New International Version)
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

Second, God heals our hurts by His promise. God has promised us to deliver us from any pain, any trouble. All he requires is we believe in Him, believe in His son and believe He saved us from all our sins through His death on the cross. Yes, there will be times of suffering, but if we are faithful, he promises to see us through that suffering and offers us great reward. Take the first chapter of Joel, imagine standing there watching your crops, abundant and plentiful, laid to waste in a very short time, locust eating everything. You have lost everything, there are no stores (savings), nothing. However, in the very next chapter God gives us his promise....

Joel 2:25-26 (New International Version)
25 "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm [a]—
my great army that I sent among you.

26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,
who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.

Joshua 21:45 (New International Version)
45 Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

Next, God heals our hurts through His people. Consider Paul, his suffering in the name of Jesus was great. However, he was able to use his suffering to speak directly to the hurts of others, to help heal them through the word of God. I know God saved me when He did so that I would have the sin and suffering I endured outside of Him to use in my dealings with others. I consider what I went through as my PhD level training on suffering. Who better to tell someone of the healing powers of God than someone who has experienced it themselves. Someone who has been there and can attest to them first hand.

2 Corinthians 1:3-6 (New International Version)
The God of All Comfort
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

Finally, God heals our hurts through his own suffering. Yes, God suffers. In fact, God took on our greatest suffering, our sin. He bore our suffering to save us, the greatest healing of all.

Isaiah 53:4-5 (New International Version)
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

That last line says it all....BY HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED!!!

If you are suffering today, take comfort in knowing God is with you, He will never leave you. He promises to bring you through it and reward you greatly on the other side. He will provide fellowship with others to help you through. People who have been where you are and who, through the grace of God, survived to be a better person in Christ. Finally, God knows your suffering because He bore the ultimate suffering for us, He saved us!!

Prayer:
Lord, Thank You for Your presence, promises, people and Your own sufferings to heal me. I endure suffering help me to know You are always with me, show me Your presence, let me feel Your protective arms around me. Bring Christian people into my life for fellowship and help in my worst times. Heal me Lord, Heal me through Your love and Your knowledge of suffering. Use my pain to help others. I trust in you. In Jesus name, Amen.