BACKGROUND:David’s initial response to the staggering knowledge of God's awesomeness and sovereignty was that he was troubled. Like many who respond to the fact of God’s omniscience, he thought it was confining, that God had besieged him and cupped His hand over him.
Moreover, this kind of knowledge was out of David’s control—it was too wonderful for him. The word “wonderful” carries the idea that it was “extraordinary or surpassing.” In other words divine omniscience is too high for humans to comprehend.
The thought of such confining knowledge may have prompted David’s desire to escape, as verses 7-12 suggest. But, where would you go - where could you go? There is absolutely no place where he or any of us could escape from the presence of the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:24 (ESV) says, "Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord."
What's the bottom line about God's character? God was always watching over David - watching over his coming and going. The foundational truth is simple - God is not a spectator in our lives.
SO WHAT?
How many of you have ever had a broken bone? How many of you have ever had stitches? How many of you have ever had a surgery of any kind? How many of you have ever had a knife wound? In the kitchen or a dark alley? How many of you have ever had a gunshot wound? How many of you have ever been wounded in a war? There are some great stories from those wounds – an I right?
Well, today, I want to talk with you about How God Heals Your Wounds. Not the physical, but the hidden wounds. Hidden wounds are the memories that still hurt, those recollections from your past that when you think about those things they still cause pain in your life.
Memories of abandonment. Some of you have memories of abuse. Some of you have memories of ridicule, severe criticism or hatred or prejudice or criticism that just tore you down – physical abuse, spiritual, sexual abuse, emotional abuse.
Where do you get the hidden wounds of life? From everywhere. From the prejudices in society, from family members - parents, from kids, from brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. You can get them in the work place. You can certainly get them on the schoolyard from mean children. They’re everywhere.
I’ve been a pastor for a long time and I’ve talked to people and I’ve learned two truths about life. One is everybody has a hidden wound. You may be masking it but everybody has a hidden wound. At least one. An emotional scar from somebody in the past who hurt you in some serious way.
The other thing I’ve learned is that emotional scars take longer to heal than physical wounds. The good news is this: Jesus Christ wants to heal your hidden wounds. You can start on that process today.
Yesterday I told you about how, in the Bible, God gives Himself different Hebrew names – each one designed to meet a need in our lives. God reveals another name of His to us in Exodus 15:26, He says, “I am Jehovah Rapha,” which means “I am the God who heals.” God wants to heal your hidden wounds.
Psalm 147:3 says, “God heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” You say, “How does He do that? That’s what we’re going to look at today – the steps in God’s healing process.
These don’t always go in this order, but you will always find these three principles in God’s process of healing our hidden wounds.
#1. RELEASE THOSE WHO HAVE HURT ME.
Folks, a simple truth of life is this - you can’t get well as long as you harbor resentment. For your own sake, you’ve got to let go of the hurt, let go of the bitterness, let go of the pain and your perceived right to get even. Folks, I am the king of even. My motto in life used to be I don’t get mad, I just get even – and in my case, more than even.
Let me let you in on a secret I have learned in my 48 years - getting even will not take away your pain. Some of you have done that. I’ve done that. You’ve been able to get back at the person who hurt you. Fort those who of us have gotten even, we have learned that it didn’t solve the problem. You still feel the pain. There is only one way to get rid of hurt in your heart, when somebody’s hurt you.
Forgiveness. You say, “But they don’t deserve to be forgiven!” I didn’t say they did. You’re right. They don’t. I’m not saying forgive them because they deserve it. I’m saying forgive them for your own sake. You can’t get on with your life as long as you’re stuck in the past. As long as you hold onto resentment, you are stuck.
Romans 12:17-19 says “Never pay back evil for evil. Never avenge yourself. Leave that to God. For He has said that He will repay those that deserve it.” The reason why we get in such a mess is we forget this. We forget that God saw all the hurt that was done to us - we think that we have to take matters into our own hands and it’s our duty to settle the score.
Folks, it’s not your duty to settle the score! God says, “I will settle the score.” God says “trust me to balance the books.” I know that goes against the grain for most of us – I know that is contrary to what we probably learned growing up. But, here is the truth - you can spend the rest of your life trying to do settle the score or you can let God do it.
Listen to how Jesus dealt with those who hurt him, deceived him, rejected him, hated him, lied about him, spread rumors about him, mocked him, disrespected him and ultimately killed him.
1 Peter 2:23 says “When Jesus suffered, He did not threaten to get even. He left His case in the hands of God.”
Folks, releasing those who have hurt you is the only you’re going to get well. There is no other way. You’ve got to release those who have hurt you What’s the consequence if you don’t release those who have hurt you?
Bitterness! Hebrews 12:15 says “A bitter spirit is not only bad in itself but can also poison the lives of many others.” Resentment and bitterness poisons everybody around you. Don’t let that happen through you.
#2. REPLACE OLD TAPES WITH GOD’S TRUTHS.
Folks, you know this - your brain is like a tape recorder. It has recorded every single experience you have ever had it’s all in there. Everything people have said. Your brain is an amazing recorder. It’s recorded it all down – good and bad, right and wrong, true and false.
Here’s the problem: Your brain doesn’t distinguish between things that are true and things that are false. Particularly when you were a little kid, there were some things that were said to you that were flat-out lies but you may have believed them. Some of us, many of us are operating our lives on those old lies.
And because you are operating on faulty data, you have set yourself up for failure and pain and hurt. Some of you, when you were kids, had adults or authority figures in your life say things like “You’re stupid… You’re ugly … You’re never going to amount to anything … I’m embarrassed to call you my child … You’re uncoordinated … You’re dumb … Why can’t you be smart like your sister/brother…” on and on. They said things to you – “You’re worthless” – and that went into your recorder.
Those old tapes are still haunting you, dogging you, defeating you and trapping you. Folks, if you want to experience God’s healing, you’ve got to replace those tapes with God’s truths.
Listen to what Romans 12:2 says the answer is to those old tapes we keep playing. It says “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." How does God change us? How does He transform us? By changing the way we think. God says, if you are going to experience the healing of those hidden wounds, then you have to let me change the way you think – you have to let me replace the old tapes with my truths. How do you do that?
First, you have to pray and say, “God, would You heal my memories? Those things that hurt, those open wounds in my heart. They still hurt. Would You heal my memories and begin the process of transforming my mind?”
Second, you need to fill your mind with God’s word, the Bible. The more you fill your mind with this book, the more it will start erasing old tapes and putting God’s truth in your mind. You need to get into this book. You need to soak in the truths in this book.
Folks, The more you get in this book, the more you build your life on truth and the more you replace all the lies. You fill your mind with this book my memorizing and studying and reading. Want to know what God thinks about you? What he says about you? How he feels about you? Get into the word!!!
A Princeton Review article suggested that psychologists have proven that the way you see yourself – your self-esteem, your self worth, your self-concept – is largely determined by what you think the most important person in your life thinks about you. The way you see yourself tends to be based on what you think the most important person in your life thinks about you.
So I want to suggest to you that you make Jesus Christ the most important person in your life. And to know how he feels about you, you have to get into His word and read it for yourself.
#3. REACH OUT TO HELP OTHERS.
If you’re not there, you’re not healed yet. Because that’s the third step of God’s healing process. You’ve got to redeem your pain. You’ve got to use your experiences to help other people. That’s called ministry. God meant for us to help each other. He can use your pain for good.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1 “God comforts us every time we have trouble so when others have trouble we can comfort them with the same comfort that God has given to us.” Have you had a major hurt in your life? Don’t waste it – let God use that pain to help others. Maybe your hidden wound happened as a child – maybe part of your healing is that you work in our children’s ministry and join the children’s ministry team to help build the children of COV and this valley.
Maybe your hidden wound came as a Jr. High or High School student – maybe the way to completely heal from those wounds is to go and join our student ministries staff and build students – make sure that they are getting encouraged and that their self –esteem is rooted in the way God thinks of them.
Maybe your pain came as a young mother – then have a ministry with young mothers. Maybe your pain has come in your marriage – then have a ministry with married folks, you get the point don’t you? Use the pain you have experienced to bring healing to others with their hidden wounds. Get off the sidelines and get into the game. God is awesome. I pray that you will see that in a greater way than ever today.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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