Have you ever had a moment where you felt sadness but you couldn’t explain it. Or a burst of anger and yet you know the anger isn’t connecting with the belief you thought you affirmed about a situation?
You and I are created beings with feeling and emotion. A wiring that often gets suppressed as we have been trained to do through cultural, familial, or societal norms. Even norms in the church have struggled to make sense of the emotional landscape we find ourselves entangled with when it comes to practicing our faith.
Your faith in God plays a huge role in the journey of emotional healing that you experience because our concepts of who God is and his character shape our beliefs about our ability to heal and our path forward out of emotionally traumatizing events in our lives.
Our faith has the potential of providing us so much strength, hope and purpose in our most trying times or it can strangle us with confusion and self-hatred for the ways we don’t measure up.
Biblical principles and characters can serve as a road map to our emotional healing. There are so many imperfect and broken people in the bible seeking God and overcoming unlikely odds and discovering transformation that we can relate to.
Emotional Healing
Is emotional healing even possible? This sort of healing isn’t quite like physical healing. So much is “under the hood” that we just can’t see and that is why I believe the healing we most often need is a healing we alone cannot find by our own strength.
We find true healing through a loving partnership with the Holy Spirit on our journey. Think of all the overwhelming and painful emotions you may walk through that are almost too much to bare and that leave you feeling even more lost, confused, or hurt.
Emotional spiritual healing is possible by the intervention of the Holy Spirit to whisper to our delicate hearts in ways we cannot even fathom as we surrender in faith to his work within us.
The internal peace and restoration we so often desire is unpacked in the humility of our human condition and the surrender to his loving work when we just cannot see the way forward or out of the maze of our heart.
The Power of Truth
That’s why meditating day and night on the scripture no matter the feeling we have is so important.
Think of the body builder that eats the meals and does the workouts no matter the feeling they might have.
We see the determination in that sort of transformation and yet we struggle to see how a determination in a spiritual sense could be the key to unlocking our own healing and emotional transformation.
Think of a scripture like Isaiah 41:10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
God has promised to help us in our time of need. He has promised to uphold us.
Or a Psalm like Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
He will save the crushed in spirit.
It’s almost as if we must come to the point that have no choice to let it all go and to surrender to the will of God. He is near to you in your broken heart, He has promised to save you who are crushed in spirit.
This is the path of healing. The release for which we must arrive.
And I promise, I know this almost sounds overly simple and maybe even silly to suggest that you can “cast your cares” upon God, but He invites you to because He knows it will begin the work that you need within you.
In Matthew 11:28-30 We see Jesus extend this invitation.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
You’re not alone
This sort of healing certainly can take place in the privacy of your own home, but even still the scriptures point us to lay bare our struggles in a safe community and we will find healing.
James 5:16 says,
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of finding the community in which you feel safe and can work through your pain, trauma, sin, and begin to find healing.
That is why I started down this path of offering coaching and spiritual consulting. I saw how powerful it was in my own life to seek out the mentors and community in which I was able to make known my sins and begin to find healing.
Remember, God has a beautiful purpose for all of life’s experiences. He wants what is best and good for you. (Romans 8:28)
Cultivate Rhythms for Healing
The more you put into practice daily, moment by moment prayer. Meditate on the scripture daily. Spend time in worship of God. Study God’s word. Surround yourself with a faith based, bible believing church. You will begin to have in place the routines and rhythms that foster a deep sense of faith in the eternally faithful God.
Put your faith in Him rather than your emotions and you’ll begin to unpack and find the healing your heart so desperately needs.