Three Steps Toward Healing 1

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How many of you could admit that your personal story (your life) has some chapters with sad, sordid, sinful, and even sickening events you’ve tried to suppress but can’t?

You’re not alone. So does mine. Your pain, my pain - it's real and it matters.

You and I bury pain, barricade or block events that have wounded us, and allow offenses and losses we’ve experienced or caused others to hinder us, hurt others, and distort our perception of God.

In the next three messages we’re going to learn from a man used greatly by God whose writings were often the result of his wounds. He’s called the sweet psalmist of Israel – Israel’s king, David.

To read the Psalms of David is to read the writings of a wounded man.

We all have painful events in our lives. We get emotional wounds from things others have done to us, we’ve done to others, sin, things we’ve gone through, losses, tragedies - all of them significant.

Left uncared for these wounds become infected - and negatively influence our quality of life and relational health. Sooner or later these buried wounds bubble out like puss from an abscess.

Key Thought One: Experiences That Wound Us Take Us into The Hiding Place (Psa. 32 / Pray).

David has buried a painful, sinful event. Probably many. He puts up a good front but there is something he’s hiding and it’s doing him real damage. Have you done that? Doing it right now?

Map David’s life and you’ll make stops at grief, loss, shame, betrayal, abandonment, rejection, family dysfunction, embarrassment, failure, war atrocities, adultery, murder, a daughter raped by his son, several sons murdered/died, loss of reputation, position, security… and the normal stuff!

You can only bury so much before it begins to go to the bone – to bubble up and out into your beliefs about yourself and others, God, your behaviors, your relationships, work… David is in that place but can’t afford to stay there - neither can you no matter how well it seems to work - Ps. 32:

• v 1-2. No matter what happened to you or what you’ve done you can stop hiding and heal.

• v. 3-4. But if we choose to keep hiding, the hurt goes deeper and the hinderances grow stronger. Eventually the well goes dry, there’s nothing to draw, and we have to come out.

I have learned by my own painful experience and that of others that a person can carry pain a long time and a long way. But at some point, it all catches up… (Pro. 18:14, 28:13).

So, do what David did, I did, others have done: Invite Jesus into the hiding place by simply acknowledging your woundedness to God: what has happened to you, what you have done.

Here's a few things you can start right now:

1) Write out your story. David did – a lot! The good, bad, ugly, earliest memories to present. Ask God to reveal details that have shaped who you are. Let humility and honest supply the ink.

2) Invite God into each painful event. Acknowledge emotions, losses, consequences. You’re not endorsing, excusing, confessing, seeking anything - just inviting God into them (Isa. 43:1-5a).

These events are the ones you can’t, won’t, or keep talking about. They trigger intense emotions when they visit unexpectedly. Then give them to God in prayer (Psa. 62:8).

3) Rest! You've taken a giant step toward healing while still in hiding. Come back for step 2.