Just to keep it real, my personal life hasn’t been “fine.” It’s been hard. Not hopeless or despairing, just hard.
I’m in a season of allowing God to mend some painful wounds. And through this recent “pressing into Him” He has proven (again) that He will always be the Soul-Healer.
I don’t say that lightly. I don’t say that like some cheesy greeting card that tries to make you believe there’s hope. I say that having experienced His comfort in spite of circumstance.
Not to be the cyberspace downer of the day, but people will hurt us. And we’ll hurt them. Until Jesus makes all things straight, we’re just a bunch of messy, selfish souls living next to one another. And wounds will come.
But there’s this throneroom. And sitting in it with all His glory is the Healer of hearts. He doesn’t impose Himself. He doesn’t make us enter in. But He waits with His balm of love.
Our call is to bow. Our call is to go to Him with the wound — with it gaping open, causing anguish and sorrow. Our call is to lay it before Him.
That just means we get real. We go to Him instead of racking up that credit card or filling the prescription that we don’t really need. We go to Him instead of drinking ourselves into a coma or getting revenge on the causer of pain.
We cry the ugly cry and tell Him all we’re feeling. We scream and holler and shout out the fears. And once we’re empty of us, we sit still. We listen. And we recite what’s true and read His love again and again.
And like water to burning coals, He soothes. He allows us a glimpse into the gift of “suffering” because of its ability to bring a deeper, more intimate faith. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
I don’t say any of this lightly. I say it as one who, by His great grace, has learned that there’s only one place to go for true soul healing. I say it as one who’s learned to process pain in the presence of God. Otherwise our hearts remain restless.
I’ve recently discovered singer/songwriter Audrey Assad (love her and yes I live under a small rock since I *just* discovered her). She recorded this video talking about worship and then leads into her song “Restless.”
Yes, the video is 9 minutes. But I promise, if you make the space to watch it as an act of worship, you’ll be blessed. If you just don’t have 9 minutes, the song itself starts at 5:16. Also totally worth it.
(Click here if you can’t see the video.)
Fill me, Lord…
Testify of a time when God has healed a wound in your own soul.
