Damage Control

I just copied a short saying in Facebook that someone else has posted:

'Healing doesn't mean the damage never existed.  It means the damage no longer controls our life!'

Such a powerful statement!  I saw this as I was scrolling through posts.  But I kept going back to it, couldn't get it off my mind.

To quote one my pastors 'It all goes back to the cross.' Christ was beaten and they put nails in his hands and feet to hang him on the cross. Serious damage was done then.  But He arose from the dead, the damage did not destroy him.  It no longer controls him!

Because our identity is in Christ, what the Father has given to the Son, He has also given to us.  We have healing! Praise God! Through the work of the Holy Spirit, good counseling, prayers and love of others, I've received healing for lots of things in my life.  And not just physical, actually more emotional and spiritual than physical.

Once I allowed the Spirit to comfort and console me, the healing began.  I became more at peace with myself and with others.  I was not so angry or seeking revenge.  The damage no longer controlled my life.

It's easy to see that once you break a leg and it heals, you can't deny it happened, but you no longer need crutches to get around.

Once you've had a car accident and the car is repaired, you can't deny it happened, but you no longer need a rental car to get around.

But when you apply that principle to the spiritual and emotional part of your life, the truth is so profound!

God not only saves me for eternity, but from the consequence of my sin.  I can't deny it happened, but the sin and it's effect don't control my life.

As far as my personal sin, it did happen, but the remorse and the grief no longer control me.  I've been forgiven, the sin has been sent away, as far as the east is from the west.  Hopefully I learn from my mistakes and don't commit the same ones again.  I step away from the sin, whether it was intentional or unintentional, and live in the Spirit to not repeat that sin.

As far as sins committed against me, the anger, hate and pain they brought no longer control me.  Scriptures says 'By His stripes we are healed'.

     But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  Isaiah 53:5  KJV

That healing is for not only my sins but those sins that were done to me! Amazing! Grasping this truth was huge for me! ALL things done against me have been forgiven and healing is available for me. Those things no longer control me. I no longer act out in response to what was said and done to me. I am healed through the work of the cross, so I respond in His love because of what He did for me.

It's not about what's been done to us, rather what's been done for us!
And then choosing to live in the freedom, peace and love.  Let those things control your life.