healing and hope
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The Biggest Step You Can Take Toward Healing

Are you looking for healing and hope?

Have you been struggling with something for so long, you’re ready to give up on ever finding freedom?

I’ve found myself in that place more than I’d like to admit. I’ve been tangled in the lies of sin and shame. And I’ve been caught up in the darkness, unable to find my way to hope.

Whether it’s a broken past, a broken relationship or a broken dream, there is a way to find hope and healing.

Are you looking for healing and hope? Have you struggled for so long, you’re ready to give up on ever finding freedom? You can find healing and freedom...

The biggest step you can take towards healing is to allow God into your pain.

This is no easy task.

In my darkest times, I’ve struggled most to invite God in. I felt betrayed because of my pain.

Why would God allow me to suffer so much? How could I give up control to the one who was supposed to protect me?

Today, I am going to walk you through some of the most important parts of learning to allow God into your pain, even when you don’t feel like it.

Learning to Trust - When You Don’t

Trusting God does not come naturally to us, especially when we are hurting.

When we struggle, we want to grab onto any sense of control. We want to fit our daily routines into a sense of normalcy and ease in order to try and maintain our sanity.

In the times that I have struggled most, I’ve wanted to take charge of every area of my life, leaving God as an afterthought, someone at arms-length.

But trusting God is essential to letting him into your pain and finding healing. Without surrender, you will not be able to discover true and lasting hope.

So how can you trust an invisible God when it seems that He let you down?

How can you cling to God’s love and protection when you don’t feel safe and secure?

I’ll start by saying that it isn't easy.

Sometimes God’s protection doesn’t look very safe and secure.

The only way to learn to trust God even when you don’t is to give up your search for understanding.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. -Proverbs 3:5

We all want to understand our pain. We want it to make sense and to lead to something good.

But God says that it will.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:28

When you don’t feel like you can trust in the Lord, you have to choose trust.

You have to step above your feelings and decide that you are going to count on God’s infinite understanding even when you don’t understand.

He sees the bigger picture. He is weaving this moment of your life into His perfect masterpiece. And that masterpiece is for your good.

Choose to trust this truth, even when you don’t feel it. When you do this, you open the door to healing and hope.

Standing Against Satan’s Lies

Satan wants you to stay stuck in distrust and hopelessness. He is working to pull you away from the peace of God.

As hard as it is to step up and choose to trust God, Satan is working behind the scenes to make it harder.

That is why you have to take a stand. You have to acknowledge Satan’s lies in your life.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. -James 4:7

When you submit your heart and your desires to God, you can resist Satan’s lies. And we have the promise that when we do this, Satan has to flee.

Don’t let your heart believe the lie that Satan is too powerful. God has already won the victory.

It is time to take a stand against Satan and find hope and healing.

Stepping Forward - Baby Steps

When you feel hopeless and need healing, it is so important to keep stepping forward.

A great friend once told me that we have to take life “one mountain at a time”.

God is leading us through a mountain range, but if we saw all that we had to do, we would quickly give up hope.

We have to trust God’s guidance and find the courage to take each step.

God knows how much we can handle and He will only reveal the baby steps to us. But as we take each small step towards healing, He will reveal the next and then the next. And soon we will find ourselves standing on the mountaintop.

What baby step is God placing before you today? How can you find the strength to start with that first step?

As you work to allow God into your pain, you will find that you are already moving towards healing and hope.

Working through these three points will help you to take the biggest step towards healing and hope.

 

How have you found encouragement to let God into your pain?

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15 Comments

  1. Your post is so true and so me. When I am having a hard time, I always find myself withdrawing from God. I hunker down and just stop. I exhaust myself trying to find my way out of my situation and analyzing it to pieces. “Lean not on your own understanding” is definitely something I need to be reminded of. Thank you for sharing your heart!

  2. These are great points, Nicole! They are so necessary in our faith walk.
    I’ve found encouragement to let God into my pain through the word of God, especially the Psalms, but also Isaiah 53 where we see how much pain He went through to save us and draw us to Himself.

  3. So powerful, Nicole. Your honesty on this topic is refreshing. It’s easy to just say, “Let God handle it,” but much harder to live it out. Thank you for being honest about it!

  4. I think your point about quit trying to understand hits the nail on the head. We can still share our deep pain with God, but instead of looking for an explanation, we find our peace in His love and sovereignty. Lament and praise at the same time. Hard, yes, but on my knees, seeking Him is where I need to be.

  5. Ouch! Yes, my pain is there and there and there. I handle it alone far too often. Thank you for encouraging me, Nicole, to open the ways for God to be with me in the pain. Right now, it happens to be physical pain, but it has been the other types. I let Him in then. Why not now? Yes, I trust Him. I love Him. I want Him to walk with me and take me to the highest hills for time alone with my Lord. Nicole, I am smiling right now because I sense that in the writing of this comment, the releasing is coming. Hallelujah!

  6. I love this. And this post came at a very opportune time for me. I’m struggling with understand why God has allowed my husband and I to have so many tough, stressful weeks recently, and I agree, it’s hard to allow Him into my pain. Thank you for sharing such pertinent and meaningful wisdom. 🙂

  7. Powerful post Nicole! Love your help with how to move forward when it feels impossible or improbable. It also reminds me of so many of David’s Psalms where he acknowledges the depths of his disappointment or trials yet seeks to trust God and keep moving forward in his purpose in life. Well done friend😉

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