Healing From Past Heartaches

There is a broken path in life. A road many of us here have walked. It’s the road of perdition. It’s the road of destruction. But it doesn’t feel that way when we walk it, not at first at least.

The road begins with a surrender. It’s a surrender that occurred in my heart when I had had too much. I had been broken. I was overwhelmed by life, and as a child, we don’t have enough to stand against it all.

So at some point, this child gives up.

There’s a fascinating bible verse that tells us what this means. It says in Colossians 3:21, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.”

So that’s what it means to lose heart. I’ve read that phrase so many times in the scripture, to “lose heart” but I never understood what it meant.

Losing heart must be a lot like giving up.

Proverbs 18:14 ESV “A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?”

When I was 16 or 17 so many things were coming at me, my parents were splitting up, I was experimenting with drugs and drinking, I was being bullied relentlessly in school, and I felt this pressure to perform, to be a sports star. I was depressed, I was in sin, and I was broken.

And finally something snapped in me and I decided, I’m not going to try anymore. I rebelled. I surrendered to a dark path.

Can you relate? Have you been there?

We’re talking about healing today. And I think to understand healing, we have to understand what it means to lose heart. To lose heart is to be so pressured by life’s problems that we give up inside. Without Jesus, there’s little we can do, we lose heart. But we Jesus, we can find it again, and find hope.

Jesus changes everything. The ultimate source of healing is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the doorway, God the Father is the architect & guide of the plan, and the Spirit is the indwelling healing presence.

Jesus Christ does the mighty work within us. But it isn’t finished there. We still need to heal and grow. There is work to be done.

But many of you walked that broken road. That broken road, of having given up on life, leads to many dark places. It leads to numbing of the pain with drinking and drugs, or relationships, and romance. It can lead to workaholism, working working working never stopping. It can lead to overeating. It can lead to all sorts of addictions, and sins, and shortcomings.

And like a snowball rolling down hill you just keep accumulating traumatic events. Broken relationships. Bitter memories. Resentments. People you hate. Anger at the system. Depression. Suicidal thoughts. Negative thoughts.

I know, I walked that broken road. The road got darker and darker. But along the way we encountered Jesus. We encountered God. Someone ministered to us. Someone shared God’s love with us.

Hope came back into our lives, after being gone for so many years.

Still we didn’t want to give up. We didn’t want to surrender to Him. We resisted letting God have our lives. But then finally we decided, it’s worth it, and we said Jesus, take it all. I’m yours.

Jesus accepted this request, and changed us. We were born again. We started a new adventure, a new journey took root.

Many of you are there today. God has changed your life. You’re a new creation. You’re washed in the blood of Jesus.

And yet there is still a cloud over your life. You don’t experience the sunlight of the spirit. You struggle with difficult memories. You battle secret sins.

Why? What’s the problem?

Healing is needed.

Jesus really did forgive our sins. He really did die for us on the cross. We really are changed and new.

But we still have trauma from the past that is affecting us. And we can’t walk in victory until we deal with those pains, bring them to the surface, and invite Jesus to heal the damage.

We’re going to pause and pray: “Lord, Father, if there are things that need to come up to the surface right now, we boldly ask you to bring them up to the surface, bring them to mind, and help us to offer them to you, for you to heal, in Jesus name, amen.”

What is the ancient pain you carry? What is the painful memory that keeps bothering you? What is the unforgiveness? What is the hatred?

Jesus has a title, and it’s the great physician. He is able and willing to heal us.

Our part, is to do something difficult. Which is to face it head on.

So now we’re on the new road. The pilgrimage road. The road of faith, like we talked about last week.