Choose your enemies carefully, 'cause they will define you Make them interesting 'cause in some ways they will mind you They're not there in the beginning but when your story ends Gonna last with you longer than your friends
How much of my life has been defined by those two boys who stole me at five? Have I given them far too much power? There was a large chunk of my life where they ruled my mind. Nightmares, daymares, flashbacks all tortured me for a time. And then as I healed, as Jesus took my hand and led me down a healthier path, the boys faded from memory. I can't remember their faces. I hope and pray they don't last longer than my friends.
But they can, if I let them. If I stay back there in those bully memories for too long. I visit them only to proclaim healing, thankfully. But if I stay, they have a way of entangling my mind.
One of my favorite verses emphasizes the great looking forward we must do as those who have been hurt in the past. (And you don't have to have the type of abuse I've experienced to have pain. We all have pain. All foster regret, anguish, awkward moments.)
Isaiah 43:18-19
Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.
God is in the business of creating new things. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." I fear that we miss those new things by staying too long with the bullies of our past. The question Isaiah poses, "Will you not be aware of it?" is an important one. It implies that we can be so preoccupied with the past that we'll miss the roadways in the desert. By staying too long in the past, we'll overlook a river through the desert of that memory.
Oswald Chambers says it beautifully. "Let the past sleep. But let it sleep on the bosom of Christ, and go out into the irresistible future with Him."
We have an irresistible future! We don't need to follow U2's words. We don't need to be defined by our enemies. They do not have power over us. They cannot haunt us if we're pressing forward, looking to the future, awaiting the new things God brings.
Jesus asked the paralytic in John 5:6 the question He asks you today: When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
You have been in your condition many years now. Do you want to get well? Really? Would you rather rehash the past over and over in an endless loop of pain, or do you want healing? I have found that most people don't pursue healing. The difference between the healed people and those still living in the past defined by their enemies is this: tenacious running after healing. You have to want to get well so bad it wakes you up at night.
The truth: THERE IS NO PASSIVE HEALING.
The truth: Your enemies no longer need to define you.
The truth: You can be set free. You can experience rivers in the desert.
The truth: With Jesus, there is an irresistible future.
8 comments:
Mary...that was very challenging,beautiful and timely. Again this morning in my quiet time with God, He reminded me to give Him my painful memories...to seek healing, that I may be "free-er" today than my yesterdays.
Thank you so much for your authentic, strong and gentle words.
Juanita
I don't know if John 5:4 is still in your bible or not (with the discovery of earlier copies of John, that verse was discovered to be a scribal note, not the words of John - see my link below) but it explains the mindset of the people waiting by the pool:
"For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."
So the original words of John do not describe the healing waters as being stirred by an angel, but the scribe who added the above note obviously believed that the people by the pool believed that the "first one in" after the waters occasionally stirred up would be healed.
So, the paralyzed man waited by that pool for decades, waiting, praying, hoping for someone to drag him into the water before everyone else. He wanted into the pool the instant the "angel" stirred the water - he'd spent his life waiting to get into that pool...
So why did Jesus ask if he wanted to get healed? Wasn't it obvious?
The man's answer, "I have no one to help me get into the pool," tells me something.
He was looking to the pool. He lamented his lack of support. He had no one, and he "needed" their help so he could achieve his goal: the pool.
All of this while the Son of God is standing right in front of him, with all the creative power in the universe to heal him.
He wasn't the only one who nearly missed the miracle: he obeyed Jesus and took up his mat and walked all the way to the temple to be declared clean - where he was promptly chided for "working" on the sabbath by carrying his mat!
To paraphrase another U2 song, it is important that we don't get "stuck in a moment" that defines us to such a degree that we can't find our true identity in Christ.
Did the man want the pool more than Jesus? Was he stuck on his approach to the detriment of his dream? Was the legend more attractive than the lie? Blessed he was to be given the grace to overcome the pull of the enemy to listen to the simple command of our Lord.
Good words, Mary. Thank you, and thanks be to God.
note on the "missing verse" -http://mattdabbs.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/the-case-of-the-missing-verse-john-54/
Juanita, thanks so much for saying that. I love the way Jesus works.
XDPaul, yes, it's in mine (with a note). I love the way those verses highlight what you say about the man looking to the pool instead of to the creator of the pool.
I love the Oswald Chambers quote -- thank you for that. Go forth in to the irresistable future -- and if I may add, following an incredibly, irresistable God. May the Lord continue to bless you as you encourage others with His truths.
God used the same text from Isaiah so powerfull in my healing. At the beginning of a two year proces I got the last part of the text and wondered what God meant. But shortly after all my memories came back and I was in a emotional rollarcoaster for two years to find healing of past wounds. And after that the same text came back only now also with verse 18! It was time to leave the past and by the healing proces vers 19 was also a reality for me!
Also The mark part four was such a great relieve to read, It's good to know not to be alone in all those confusing feelings and hurts!
Thank you
Glad that quote blessed you, Andrea.
Anonymous, how interesting that God split the verses in two to bring you healing. Wow!
"God is in the business of creating new things."
I love that thought. It's easy to let things that are past plague the present. It's much, much better to let them go. Great post, Mary.
I knew I was healing when I could laugh at a character in a movie who was a perverted grandfather, and not have it trigger memories of my perverted grandfather.
Thanks for the U2 reference!
Post a Comment