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God’s Healing Grace Series
Contributed by Tom Shepard on Oct 15, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon looks at three aspects of God’s Healing Grace. 1. God says you are ACCEPTED 2. God says you are VALUABLE 3. God says you are LOVED
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God’s Healing Grace
One of the things I’ve learned in this world – is that no one has an easy life. We all have problems. We all have hurts. We all have hidden wounds.
Another thing I’ve learned in life – is that one of the deepest hurts of all is rejection. Rejection from parents – rejection from peers – rejection partners – all of these rejections hurt. Some of us can remember things which happened or were said – 5 – 10 – 15 years ago – or longer. We don’t let go of our hurts very easy because the wounds are deep. How do you deal with your hurts? How do you get over your pain? Today, I want us to look at God’s Healing Grace. I want to talk about – how God heals the wounds of our life. The Psalmist tells us:
“He (God) heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.” Psalms 147:3 (NKJV)
How does God heal us? How does God fix our wounded spirits? One of the ways that He does it is by telling us how valuable we are – by telling us we are important to Him.
You may not realize it – but did you know that you are so valuable to God that He sent His Son to heal you? It is true. It is the story of the New Testament. God sent His Son – Jesus – to the earth – because He knew that you were hurting and that you needed healing. Broken hearted – rejected by some – bruised sometimes emotionally and sometimes physically – God saw your hurts and He sent His Son to come and heal you. The Bible says:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (NKJV)
Someone told me a long time ago that I needed to make this verse more personal. They told me that what I needed to do was to put my name in the verse. They told me that this is what the verse would say: “For God so loved Tom that He gave His only begotten Son – Jesus, that if Tom would believe in Jesus – Tom would not perish but that Tom would have everlasting life.” You can put your name in there too – because God loved you so much that He sent Jesus to heal you too.
Here is a fact Folks – God loves me – God loves you – and He wants the best for me and for you. God thinks I am important – He thinks you are important too – so important that He sent His Son to heal you.
How does God heal? Part of the healing process involves changing the way we think about ourselves? Look at a verse from Romans with me:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2 (NKJV)
Go ahead and circle the words “renewing of your mind”. God tells us not to be conformed to this world – but to be transformed by the way you think – by the renewing of your mind. The Bible places great emphases on our thought life. Our thoughts are powerful. They direct our lives. Proverbs tells us:
“As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” Proverbs 23:7
In other words – if you view yourself as a loser you’re going to tend to be a loser in life. If you view yourself as a failure, you’re going to tend to fail. But if you see yourself as a winner – you will give more effort to winning. If you see yourself as an over-comer – you will put more effort into overcoming. It’s very simple – our beliefs determine our behaviors. The way we think determines the way that we act – therefore we ought to think in a manner which pleases God.
I don’t know about you but I like to hear words of encouragement. I like to hear, “Hey, you did a great job.” Or, “Wow, you really did well.” Words like this boost my self-esteem and help me get a new perspective on my life.
The problem is – many of us have heard too many negative statements. If others don’t give us negative criticism many times – we criticize ourselves. We have gotten into a negative thought pattern. God wants us to break the old pattern and accept His way of thinking. That is why He says:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2