http://bible.com/events/7205608
We acknowledge, our wounds can come from a lot of places:
• Wounds from past sin or from current sin (destructive behaviors)
• Wounds from failure – you have disappointed yourself and others
• Wounds by other people – abused, disrespected, mistreated, abandoned
• Wounds from incredible loss in your life
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Statement #1
(In the midst of your pain) He loves you.
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Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
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• Our emotions in the midst of our circumstances can sometimes make us feel like God is distant
• But the truth is that Jesus weeps with us in our pain (John 11:35)
• Jesus showed us a God who associates with the broken and the destitute
• Jesus is able to bring us the most comfort when we are hurting (Matthew 5:4)
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Statement #2
(In the midst of your pain) He can heal you.
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Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Add your private notes…
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• It’s not just that God is close, but He desires to save, to minister, to heal
• “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
-The wounds represented here were from years of being in exile
-God was healing deep emotional and psychological pain from all that was lost
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John 5:1-9NIV
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 4 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
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The Question:
Do you want to be healed?
• The man’s response with reasonable excuses…”I have no help” and “Someone gets ahead of me”
• Often we can identify all the reasons why experiencing healing is hard, without clearly answering the question
• “God healed me, but I had to choose that healing. To be made whole, first I had to admit that I wasn’t.” Christine Caine
• Your past has no more power over you than what you give it.
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Sometimes we want to be accepted, rather than healed.
We want to be comforted, rather than healed.
We want to be enabled, rather than healed.
If we aren’t careful, our identity is totally caught up in our pain, our hurt, our wounds.
Add your private notes…
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“His healing follows you trust”
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Philippians 3:13-14NIV
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
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“Straining toward what is ahead” is not easy. It sounds messy, even painful. There will be moments filled with uncertainty. But ultimately it comes down to trust. Trusting God means we are “straining toward what is ahead” and “pressing on.”
How can God heal us if we will not trust Him with our wounds?
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Other Texts for Further Reflection:
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Isaiah 53:3-5NIV
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.Like one from whom people hide their faceshe was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our painand bore our suffering,yet we considered him punished by God,stricken 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 on him,and by his wounds we are healed.
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Psalms 73:26NIV
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heartand my portion forever.
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Matthew 11:27-30MSG
27 Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. “The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen. 28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” 29 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” 30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”