New hurt doesn’t discount old healing.
I’ve been sitting with these words for a whole year now. Silently questioning what they mean, praying the words were true in my own life, and hoping in the healing both past and future.
Why could I not say them a year ago? Because I didn’t know if they were really true.
First of all, I need to clarify that healing is multifaceted. When tragedy strikes and we are left with pieces, we have to not only heal physically but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
In the last year, I’ve questioned every facet. And believe me when I say I want to weep at how true that statement is. I hate that I’ve doubted healing I know has happened. I hate that I've questioned if God really answered my prayers or if there was just a temporary band-aid over the situation that held for two years.
I’ve found that there are residual effects of someone cutting into your skull (who would’ve thought?), but those effects don’t discount the healing that came from the scar. My healing came in all the fullness of a sun in a clear summer sky, and I will be grateful every day of my life for that.
And yet new pain has come.
Maybe you find yourself in a similar place. Maybe you, too, have been hurting all over again, either openly or silently wandering what to do when new hurt seems to take the place of old healing.
Whether it be another failed relationship, another loss, another health issue, or another struggle you thought you’d left in your past, I believe we have all found ourselves back in a place we thought we moved past.
When you find yourself here, do you begin to doubt the healing ever came? Do you fear you messed something up and voided the healing you once claimed? Do you question why you’re hurting again, why it still affects you so deeply when you thought you were past it?
If you can answer yes to any of these, I get it. You are not alone in this. I have asked all of these in the last year.
I’ve questioned physical healing as new, yet familiar pain struck.
I’ve questioned mental healing as my thoughts flew back to that old place of doubt.
I’ve questioned emotional healing as depression has reared its ugly head.
I’ve questioned spiritual healing as God’s goodness and trustworthiness came into question.
These are hard questions, and I believe they are normal, human responses. But here is the important thing to remember: God is not in the business of un-healing.
The Lord brought healing into my life three years ago, and that healing stands. It has not been revoked. It has not been stripped from me. The scars of years past have not been ripped apart.
New hurt does not discount old healing.
Finding yourself in another battle does not discount the victory you experienced in the last.
Your healing is not undone. Your victory is not void. You can hold the healing of the past and the hurt of the present as both being true at the same time. Even if the past lends to the present.
Y'all, Jesus Himself told us that "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows..." (John 16:33 NLT).
Trials. Plural.
But praise God because Jesus didn’t stop there. On the backside of being told to expect tough times, we are given a declaration and a promise so sweet it brings both comfort and courage.
“…But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
He has overcome, and by our laying down our lives to follow Him, we share in His victory.
He covers our trials with triumph.
He offers us His own righteousness so that we may step into the Kingdom free of strife.
He has declared victory and promised it to us.
We will experience new hurt. We may even experience new hurt related to old healing.
But take heart, my friend. Your healing is not discounted. Your hurt is not final. Jesus has overcome.
Comments