"Because I was willing--not necessarily able, but willing--to take the one step and then another, and another. God has brought me to the most interesting of places. He took what I thought was broken and unworthy...my heart...and made it into something beautiful by giving it to others who were flattened by life and circumstance. This is God's nature. The very thing that the enemy uses to try to destroy your life is the very thing that God uses to help others. God can heal every hurt and can turn your scars into signs of strength for His glory.""Your past mistakes, hurts and pain can help give someone else a future. Whatever we have gone through enables us to help others. God doesn't waste one experience of our lives. He uses everything to help someone else. He doesn't want us to remain crippled, immobilized, or paralyzed by the past. Instead, He sent us Jesus to show us how to step into the future."
"I have always known that I was not the only one carrying around such pain. We are all broken in some way. We all have wounds. some of us use that as an excuse to do nothing, to serve no one, but rather to sit and nurse our own misery. That is not what God wants, and not the model we see over and over again in the Bible. The biblical model is that God deliberately chooses imperfect vessels--those who have been wounded, those with physical or emotional limitations. Then He prepares them to serve and sends them out with their weakness still in evidence, so that His strength can be made perfect in that weakness. In fact, more often than not, it's our weakness that makes us capable of serving, because those we serve identify with our pain. As always; God works in us so that He can work through us."
----Excerpt from "Undaunted" by Christine Caine
God is able to work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28Healing doesn't happen overnight. Just as Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-19 was told to dip seven times in the Jordan river for his healing...it was messy and took time but he made a choice to do it. We can choose to heal, and trust the Great Physician in our lives. With any healing there is pain with restoration like there is pain with my husband's broken arm and his physical therapy; but you endure it because you want your full function back and it will be well worth it! Colossions 3:13 God tells us to bear with one another and forgive one anther just as we have been forgiven. Bearing doesn't sounds like an easy word at all..sounds painful in fact. Forgiveness is a hard road and every day brings a new opportunity. Will we fail on some days? Of course we will...after all we are human. Good thing there is hope in a new day to get things right.
If you find yourself in pain today; work through it. If there has been years...scar tissue might have grown up around the issue and dealing with it makes it that much more painful. You might even find yourself mad at God today. Know this...that is okay....tell God your heart...because in actuality...He knows about it already. He wants to hear from you. He can restore you to your former glory and give you joy, peace and the ability to rise above all the circumstances that used to bog you down.
I have never met a prisoner that didn't want to be free. Jesus has the keys to your freedom and it is right within your reach. Take the keys; because no one can do it for you; and release yourself of the bondage that you were never meant to carry. And through the process (not when your healed-but during) give the keys to someone else....because your ugly scar in your life (your testimony) is what will bring hope and healing to others. And this my sister is how we are meant to live....loving and helping each other and being the light of Jesus in someone else's darkness.
Don't forget to adjust that crown because you are after all... royalty and meant to shine.
Jonna
