Facing Up To Your Emotional Wounds Series

In Forrest Gump, Forrest's lifelong friend Jenny had endured a childhood of abuse and neglect at the hands of her father. In one scene, Forrest and Jenny visit her old house, and Forrest watches as Jenny throws stone after stone at the weather-beaten old house which held so many painful memories for her.

When Jenny finally quit throwing rocks and began to cry, Forrest said, "Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks."

In the book entitled, Head Trash we are told that there are 5 emotional wounds that we all suffer from:

a) Betrayal- We all have been lied to or had someone who did not live up to our expectations.

b) Injustice- We all have someone who has done us wrong

c) Humiliation-We’ve all had someone criticize us, make us feel inferior, treat is with disrespect

d) Abandonment- We’ve all had someone in our life walk away

e) Rejection- We’ve all had someone not show up or unplug and disconnect from our life

I was listening to a Pastor once preach and he made a statement I will never forget. He said: “On every church pew is a broken heart.”

Transition:

As we meet Joseph today, we read a simple statement. It says: “When Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them...” vs. 7

Initially see how he responded to literally “facing up” to his brothers. The Bible says: “and he spoke to them harshly.” Vs. 7

The bottom line is that pain triggers our emotions. It did with Joseph and it does with you and me.

Yet, Joseph is a guy that shows us how to face up to our emotional wounds.

This morning, let’s probe into Joseph’s life and look around a bit. As we do let’s look into a place in our hearts that is as invisible to our eyes but not to God’s.

I Samuel 16:7 says: “Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart. “

In Genesis 42 God lets us look at Joseph’s heart from His viewpoint. As we look at Joseph’s heart we learn a lot about ours, as well as, how ours can be healed.

What’s the pathway to emotional heart healing? Joseph shows us. God heals emotional wounds through walking with us through a process. We see each step in Joseph’s life experience as God merges His steps with ours.

Transitional Sentence: What are the steps God takes us through to heal our emotional wounds?

I. Step #1- We Step Up and Face Up To Our Pain

vs. 7-9a- “When Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them, but he disguised himself to them and spoke to them harshly. And he said to them. Where have you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food. But Joseph had recognized his brothers although they did not recognized him. Joseph remembered the dreams which he had about them...”

Explanation:

Twice in this passage we read the statement,; “Joseph recognized them.” It is obvious that Joseph knew he would have to face up to his brothers at some time in his life.

In Genesis 37:2 scripture tells us that Joseph was 17 when his brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites. Likewise, in the previous chapter we read that Joseph was 30 when he was placed in the position of Prime Minister of Egypt. In the meantime, there was 7 good years of harvest followed by 7 years of famine.

We are not sure how many years passed before Joe’s brothers made their way to Egypt but if you do the math you will understand that famine began when Joe was 37 years old. Therefore, 20 years; two decades had passed since he saw his brothers.

A lot of time had passed. A lot of pain had been endured. He endured slavery, prison, and problems all stemming from his brothers choices.

Now, the time had come for him to face up to them. He had to address his abusers. He had to face the boys who sold him and remembered that some had wanted to slaughter him. If it had not been for Reuben’s suggestion to sell him; they would have slaughtered him. ( Genesis 37:21)

In verse 9 we read something else interesting. After seeing his brothers, not only did he speak harshly to them but the Bible says that he “remembered the dreams which he had about them.”

Many nights were spent remembering. In the day, his conscious mind thought about them. In the night, his subconscious mind dreamed about them. Bottom line: He had many nightmares about them, as well as, daytime memories about them.

What is interesting is that it was dreams and the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams that got him to the palace; yet all the time; Joseph was struggling his own dreams and nightmares.