Beauty for ashes: receiving emotional healing (24 page)

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Hang Tough in Hard Times!In the following verses, the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk speaks of hard times, which he calls "high places," and states that God had given him hinds' feet to remain surefooted during those times:

Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation!

The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery,andmy invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk]andmake [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]! (Habakkuk 3:1719)

The termhindrefers to a certain kind of deer that is an agile mountain climber. It can scale up what looks like a sheer cliff with no difficulty at all, leaping from ledge to ledge with great ease. This surefootedness is God's will for us, so that when hardship comes our way we are not intimidated nor frightened at all.

To be truly victorious, we must grow to the place where we are not afraid of hard times but are actually challenged by them. In these verses,The Amplified Biblerefers to these "high places" as "trouble, suffering, or responsibility." This is because it is during these times that we grow.

If you look back over your life, you will see that you never grow during easy times; you grow during hard times. During the easy times that come, you are able to enjoy what you have

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gained during the hard times. This is really a life principle; it is just the way it works. You work all week, then you receive your paycheck and enjoy your weekend off. You exercise, eat right, and take good care of yourself, then you enjoy a healthy body. You clean your house, or basement, or garage, and then you enjoy your neat, clean surroundings each time you walk through them.I am reminded of Hebrews 12:11: "For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievousandpainful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

The person who serves God from love for Him does what is right because it is right. He does not do it to inherit any good, though in the end the blessing will not fail him. Seek to be whole in order to give the Lord glory, and in the end, you will enjoy being glorious.

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Build Bridges-Not WallsWalls represent protection. We all have a tendency to build our own walls in an attempt to protect ourselves against being hurt. As I have mentioned several times, although I have a .very kind and wonderful husband, there are times when he hurts me. I finally realized that whenever my husband caused me emotional pain, I erected a wall-I am speaking spiritually-behind which I could hide and keep him from hurting me again. But the Holy Spirit showed me that when I put up walls to keep others out, I also wall myself into a solitary place of confinement.

Many people live isolated lives because they have erected self-made walls to protect themselves. However, those walls become prisons, and they are trapped in bitterness and loneliness. They erect protective walls to prevent themselves from experiencing emotional pain, but they are unable to love and be loved unless they are willing to be hurt.

Spending your lifetime trying to avoid pain is more painful than living normally and dealing with each issue as it arises.

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Jesus is the Healer and will always be available to minister comfort to you in hurtful situations.I believe the Lord wants me to encourage you right now to take a step of faith and tear down your self-made walls. The thought will probably be frightening, especially if you have been living behind them for a long time. God can bring down those emotional walls that separate you from others, just as He crumbled the walls of Jericho (see Joshua 2:1-21; 6:1-27). TheKing James Versionof Hebrews 11:30 states that "by faith" the walls came down.

I have to take a step of faith each time Jesus shows me that I have erected walls to keep others out. I must choose to put my faith in Him as my Protector, rather than attempting to protect myself.

There are several scriptures in the Bible that promise God's protection. Isaiah 60:18 is one that ministers to me: "Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders, but you shall call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise."

What this verse says to me is that salvation through Jesus Christ is a wall of protection about me. From the moment I become His, He takes upon Himself the job of protecting me. However, in order to activate the blessings in my life, I must believe that He is watching over me. As long as I continue to reject the Lord's protection, trying to take care of myself, I will continue to live in bondage and misery.

Another wonderful scripture on the subject of God's protection is Isaiah 30:18: "And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on youandshow loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expectandlookandlong

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for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!"Careful study of this verse reveals God as One Who is literally waiting for an opportunity to be good to us, to bring justice into our situations. However, He can do that only for those who are expecting and waiting for Him to do so. Give up the labor of "self-protection" and start allowing and expecting God to protect you.

Let God be God.

As you enter this new realm, by faith, I cannot promise that you will never be hurt, but I can promise that God is "a God of justice," which means that He will eventually bring balance and will reward you for choosing His way.

Any person who chooses God's way to handle his problems and hurtful situations is destined for great things: "Even as it is written ... we are regardedandcounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet amid all thesethings we are more than conquerors andgain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us" (Romans 8:36, 37, emphasis mine).

How can we be more than conquerors, and at the same time look like sheep being led to the slaughter? The answer is simple: While it may appear we are being taken advantage of, while it may seem that the Lord is not going to rescue us, we are more than conquerors because in "the midst of the mess," we have a knowing inside that our God will never leave us nor forsake us and that, at exactly the right moment, our deliverance and reward will come.

Building Bridges

One day while I was praying, the Holy Spirit showed me that my life had become a bridge for others to pass over and find their place in God. For many years, I erected only walls in my

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life, but now where there were walls there are bridges instead. All the difficult and unfair things that have happened to me have been turned into highways over which others can pass to find the same liberty that I have found.I have learned to build bridges instead of walls.

As I stated in the fifth chapter of this book, God is no respecter of persons (see Acts 10:34). What He does for one, He will do for another, as long as His precepts are followed. If you will follow the precepts that have been outlined in these pages, you will discover the same freedom that I have found. Then you can become a bridge for others to pass over, instead of a wall that shuts them out.

In Hebrews 5:9 Jesus is referred to as "the AuthorandSource of eternal salvation." He pioneered a pathway to God for us. He became a highway for us to pass over. It is as though He faced a giant forest and went in ahead of us so that when we came along we could drive right through it without having to fight all the elements and the density of the forest. He sacrificed Himself for us, and now that we are benefiting from His sacrifice, He is giving us a chance to sacrifice for others so they can reap the same benefits we enjoy.

Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus endured the cross for the joy of obtaining the prize that was set before Him. I like to remind myself of that fact when the way seems hard. I tell myself, "Keep pressing on, Joyce; there is joy ahead."

Make a decision to tear down your walls and build bridges. There are many, many people who are lost in their messes and need someone to go before them and show them the way. Why not be that person for them?

Walls or bridges? The choice is yours.

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Beauty for AshesNot only does the Lord want to turn your walls into bridges, but as He promises in His Word, He also wants to give you beauty for ashes:

the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointedandqualified me to preach the Gospelofgood tidings to the meek, the poor,andafflicted; He has sent me to bind upandheal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prisonandof the eyes to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [the year of His favor] . . . To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn (in Zion) ... to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened,andfailing spirit. (Isaiah 61:1, 2, 3)

These promises in Isaiah 61 are rich and plentiful. Read them and make a decision not to miss out on a single one. I will be in agreement with you as I pray that every person who reads this book will inherit the promises.

God has done His part by giving us Jesus. I have done my part by acting on the Word of God and obtaining freedom, then writing this book to help you do the same. Now, you must do your part by making a quality decision that you will never give up until you have allowed Him to:

bind up your wounds;

heal your broken heart;

liberate you in every area of your life;

open your prison door;

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give you joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a heavy, burdened and failing spirit;andbeauty instead of ashes.

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Nothing Will Be WastedNo experience in your life is ever wasted or in vain if you give all your cares to the Lord. Even if your fragmented life looks like an abandoned battlefield, Jesus can reshape all the pieces of your past into something beautiful.

After Jesus had fed five thousand people with just a few loaves of bread and two small fish, He told His disciples, "Gather up now the fragments (the broken pieces that are left over), so that nothing may be lostandwasted" (John 6:12). The disciples gathered up twelve baskets of food from the leftovers, still much more than the small offering of loaves and fishes that was made to Jesus in the first place.

God set me free from fear, insecurity, emotional addictions, and the bondage of a deep-rooted sense of rejection. Then He reshaped my fragmented life and gave me the glorious privilege of teaching His people how they can be whole; how they can have fruitful, happy lives and ministries; and how they can enjoy healthy, loving relationships.

I have learned to receive unconditional love from God, from Dave, and even from myself. My husband does not do

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everything I want him to, the way I want him to, when I want him to; but that is okay now, because I have learned how to love him unconditionally too.When we were first married, I did not know anything about unconditional love. My family had to do everything my way, or else I assumed they did not love me.

When I suffered from a broken heart, everyone who was in a relationship with me had to work very hard to try to keep me happy. They suffered because they could never be real with me. They could never honestly tell me the truth about anything. They had to tell me what I wanted to hear if they wanted any peace at all.

If I said to Dave, "Let's go get a cup of coffee," he could not say, "Well, I would rather not do that," or I would pout. That was my way of controlling things. I was broken: shattered, fractured, fragmented, and dysfunctional. I had been violated, and I was making everyone pay for my pain, even if they were not the ones who had caused it.

If you have been violated through abuse, your rights as a human being were dishonored, which can cause you to feel overwhelmed. So many victims of abuse eventually reach the point where they say, "I can't handle this." They are not really troubled by the problems in everyday life; they are overwhelmed by the problems of a broken heart. Those of us who grew up in a dysfunctional home are often so insecure that we create dysfunctional homes too.

We need inner strength to keep from being overwhelmed by outward circumstances. We must allow God to gather up our fragmented dreams and remold us into the image of Christ. To do that, He may have to crush the few pieces we have left into fine clay, water us with His Word, reshape our lumpy mass of leftovers, and put us back on His potter's wheel. But He is more than capable of designing something miraculous from whatever we have left to give Him.

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Jesus told us that in the world there would be trouble, saying, "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peaceandconfidence. In the world you have tribulationandtrialsanddistressandfrustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you]" (John 16:33).Nobody can avoid tribulation in this life, but those who put their faith in Jesus can be of good cheer: "Manyarethe afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19 kjv). But the Word does not say that God delivers us immediately. We may have to go through a few things first.