Pilgrim Soldier

Yesterday I touched briefly on the events of the last year following my initial rejection for Officership. I mentioned in passing that I prepared myself to jump through any ‘hoops’ that The Salvation Army put in my way and jump through them I did.

One of these ‘hoops’ was the recommendation of undergoing some counselling in respect of some of the things that had happened in the past. None of these things were major incidents in and of themselves, but the cumulative effect had, in hindsight, clearly had an effect on how I responded to certain situations. The time I spent in these sessions was extremely valuable and has helped me see the truth of some situations that I had never really dealt with.

Something I read over the weekend is one of the reasons I wanted to mention this. For many years I had constantly picked at the scabs that were covering some of the hurts of my past and by doing so I was never really letting them heal. The problem is that this is a totally wrong attitude to have had. In my work I see people who are allowing the hurts of the past to control not only the present but the future as well. Some of them have been on the receiving end of some deep and grievous hurts; others have simply been on the receiving end of silly thoughtless comments or attitudes. Yet the thing they have in common is that aren’t claiming the healing that comes through Jesus in their spiritual lives.

Isaiah 53:5 says:

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.

Whilst we know that this is true, all too often we act in such a way that we deny the truth of the situation. Instead of allowing God to heal us and restore us, we pick and pick at the scabs that cover the wounds of the past to a point that they to start to fester and the infection gradually seeps into the whole of our lives. Why?

I know human nature and the lies of Satan are the main reason! But the fact is that my own experience of the last year is that through Jesus our wounds can be healed. The crazy thing is that if we were to break our arm the pain it causes is obvious and we seek help to get it fixed, but when it comes to emotional or psychological wounds we deny the pain, even though it is so evident and painful, and don’t seek help. By opening the wounds one last time so that God’s healing power could clean out the poison from them, I experienced healing in a way I had never thought would be possible.

Oversimplification? I’m not sure it is! I do think we need to entrust ourselves to people who won’t abuse the situation as we seek this sort of healing, but I also believe that God is greater than the things that corrupt. God’s healing power is greater than any the world has and through the wounds Christ received in his last few hours; we are healed!