Ask yourself a couple of basic questions like: Can I experience pleasure or happiness at times? Are there things I can do to make myself feel better? If the answer to either of these is yes, then it is likely that what you need is freedom from forgiveness and not the aid of a Christian mental health worker. To those who may fit in the category of clinically depressed or mentally wounded, seek the help of a Christian mental health expert to assure yourself of a counselor who understands the unlimited healing power of God and not just the teachings and tactics of secular thinking.
My wife and I were trapped in a constant cycle of things either being great or terrible and nothing in between while working our way through restoring our broken marriage. It was only when unconditional forgiveness was introduced that we finally began to blossom as a married couple. We call it “the moment” because that is what it was. In a single moment of time when true forgiveness was extended we instantly found freedom from forgiveness! I say this so you understand that I know this power personally, I know the freedom that comes from forgiveness.
One last word before we move on. There is an interesting story in Mark 8 where Jesus healed a blind man in a way that was distinct from other miraculous healing’s Jesus performed. Mark’s gospel says Jesus spit on the ground and rubbed the mud in the man’s eyes then asked the man if he could see. The man replied; I see men like trees walking. Jesus touched the man again and he could see clearly. There is an important lesson for us to learn from this the first being that this was a restorative miracle. The man’s description of “men like trees walking” tells us the man once had sight, otherwise how would he have known what a tree looked like. Jesus also did creative miracles like turning water to wine, creating bread and fish to feed thousands. But the point of the restorative miracle of Jesus and touching the man twice has cause much speculation over the centuries. Some say Jesus did not release enough power to heal the man the first time and had to “zap” him again, which would deny Jesus omniscience and therefore His deity. Some say that Jesus had to “zap” the man twice because the mans blindness was so great one touch couldn’t heal him, which would deny Jesus omnipotence and again His deity. The reason that Jesus touched the man twice was simple, to teach us that sometimes a restorative miracle is a process not an instantaneous event.
So if you have asked the Lord to free you from the pain, and it has not happened, do what He said to do in the realm of forgiveness and ask Him again. No matter how hopeless you feel, no matter how many times you tried before, add to the mix extending unmerited forgiveness and start walking in what your asking for and let the process of a restorative miracle begin in your life! You don’t have to live your whole life as a captive of a painful and hurtful past! It may be the undeserved forgiveness is the key for you because it lifts the burden of a demand for justice off of your shoulders and puts it onto the Lord.
Again, no one, including God, is asking you to act like what happened to you never did, God is just offering to you to turn the wound into a scar and your mourning into dancing.
Excerpt from “Dancing With the Scars” now available on Amazon.
