My friend recently explained to me how she sometimes imagines people as wounded soldiers. She pictures them with all their cuts, bruises and bleeding wounds that life has thrown at them. You know the bleeding wounds that many of us try to hide, or the scars that we should expose with honor because God has healed us from a life that almost destroyed us. What if you would look at your fellow human beings and see the bleeding sores that are slowly killing them? Picture the cuts and bruises that life has thrown at people and the big and small scars that their skin is marked with. That is the way God sees every single human being. He doesn’t see the picture perfect life so many of us try to hold on too. He doesn’t see a bank account, a $100.000 car or flawless skin. God sees behind the masked existence of life. He knows your heart, your inner most being, your dreams and wishes. Your fears and failures are nothing foreign to Him. There will be a day when every secret and every hidden thought will be exposed.
‘’So don’t make judgment about anyone ahead of time-before the Lord returns. For He will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our darkest motives.’’ 1 Corinthians 4:5
I still struggle to sometimes admit my failures. I don’t like to get real about my issues with lust, jealousy and pride. Satan loves to keep my junk in the dark, deceiving me that I can handle it myself. The past has revealed that I cannot handle it myself. No one can! Without repenting to God and being accountable for my actions to others, I will never be able to beat what has been rotten in me for so long.
Fact is until you stop faking it and start getting real about your oozing, bleeding wounds that are slowly killing you, you will never be able to heal. You can bandage it, hide it in a cask or cover it up with a band aid. Until you heal the wounds of your past or present, you are going to bleed. You can dress up the bleeding with food, with alcohol, with work, with cigarettes, with sex. But eventually it will all ooze through and stain your life. You must surrender to God and His strength to open the wounds. He will stick His hands inside, pull out the core of the pain that is holding you back and will restore all the hurt.
‘’People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.’’ Proverbs 27:13
Getting real is painful! If you have been trained and lied to your whole life to cover up struggles and pretend everything is fine, getting honest and open about your failures is going to be a fight. But the reward is freedom from lies and people pleasing. You need to cut the small talk and get real. Find someone you can trust and be accountable to that person. Once you get that sin into the light it loses its power. God never created you to carry your burdens by yourself. You were created for real, authentic relationships with others. You can only have deep and genuine friendships if you reveal your inner most being. People that truly love you, won’t judge you! And always remember at the end of your life the only One you have to answer to is God.
We all struggle, we all have issues. You live in a fallen world, with broken people. Broken people, do broken things. Don’t continue the cycle of destruction and believe the enemies lies. Gods’ power is ALWAYS stronger than your deepest, darkest and dirtiest secret. God loves you despite your issues. He is just waiting for you to stop faking it!
Happy New Year
Jen
