Hope for Healing Our Wounds

 We live in a world that wounds.

Our wounds occur in countless ways.
These wounds might come from stinging words or harsh judgments, deception or betrayal, accusation or abandonment, loss or failure . . .

Whatever the different causes, we have all been wounded at some point in one way or another.

Our difficult but worthy challenge is to move past our wounds and into wholeness and peace.

 One of God's names is Jehovah Shalom.  Although we usually think of shalom as peace, the Hebrew meaning was much broader.  It essentially meant  to be whole or complete and living in abundance and freedom.

This demanding challenge may take a lifetime as we go through the peaks and valleys of our journey.

But during this journey, God can use our wounds to allow us to share in the sufferings of the world and bring hope to those He places in our lives.

God calls us to
     encourage one another and build each other up.  
       1 Thessalonians 5:11

He asks us to share in His suffering.  Paul encourages us with his own powerful example:

 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his 
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:10-11

If we are willing, God gives us the courage to confront and conquer the dead places in our lives  caused by our wounds.  Beyond our suffering we are given the promise of new life.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.
 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

This process is neither easy nor quick but it is possible with the unfailing mercy of God in Christ to guide and sustain us.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God,
Colossians 3:1-3

Peace and blessings to you as you journey toward hope and healing.