Healing the Brokenhearted

I grew up in the era of black and white westerns. As battles ensued, arrows flew through the air occasionally lodging into a cowboy’s body. Grabbing the arrow and breaking it off, he would continue fighting with the arrowhead lodged inside. After the battle, he would have the arrowhead cut out. As I watched, I had no idea I was being given a picture of what happens in life.

There is a story of God written on our lives. We bear in our bodies the image of the living God. The enemy fears God’s image and wants to destroy it, so he sets traps to steal, kill and destroy.

Things happen in life. We get hurt. Arrows carrying messages of rejection, abandonment, failure, etc implant into our minds. As the arrowhead pierces through, the message embeds. Like the cowboys we break it off and keep pressing on. The problem is the distorted message remains inside and we don’t even know it.

When things happen to us as children we reason through a child’s mind. We don’t see things as they really are, we see them as perceived. Things get mixed up and It’s hard as a child to know what’s truth.

Most of my life I lived thinking there was something wrong with me.  I was told the story of how I got my name.  My parents were expecting a boy so they didn’t have a name picked out.  From that point on I believed that I wasn’t what they wanted.  I wasn’t what was planned.  On top of that I was more active than all my siblings, therefore I wasn’t like anyone else.  For 40 + years of my life I didn’t know that what I perceived was not true.  All I knew is that I didn’t feel acceptable.  As hurt people do, I built a wall of self-protection.  I became a hardworking, efficient, striving woman.  Everyone loves a good worker.

   

     Jesus said He came to heal the brokenhearted and to set the captives free.   Our emotions are like the lights on the dashboard of our cars lighting up to tell us that something is not right under the hood. It’s an invitation to look and see what’s really going on.  Anger is a strong indicator of unhealed hurt.  So often I don’t know why I am angry, I’m just angry.  If I take my anger or other emotions, to God and ask the questions, often a distorted message is revealed.  That is what He’s coming for.  He wants to expose those old beliefs in order to redeem them with His truth.

     I’ve learned that journaling is a great way to process what’s going on inside me.   “Why am I so angry?” “What am I feeling?”  “What am I hearing?”  “What am I believing?”  The goal is to expose those distorted messages that have been planted inside me and renew my mind with His truth.  In order to do that sometimes I have to go back to that painful memory.  When He wants me to go there, He brings the memory up.  In remembering He is able to give me His eyes to see what really happened.  He exposes what I believed about myself and compares it to what He says about me.  He loves replacing the lies with His truth.  It sets my captive heart free and heals my broken heart.

       

      The enemy has tried throughout your life to mar your image of God.

You have an identity all your own, a unique shadow of Him.  Jesus came to restore you to your true identity.  Who does He say you are?

      “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners.  Isaiah 61:1

      Are you aware of the broken places in you?

      What are the messages you hear over and over?  

      What lies have you embraced as true?

    

       Papa God, thank you that you sent Jesus to heal our broken hearts and set us free from the enemy’s traps and lies.  Thank you that you see us as we really are.  Give us eyes to see what you see.  We love you.

This is also posted at the Internet Cafe
©copyrighted 2008 by Jule L. Todd