Do we not have to go throughout our lives enduring lash after lash that tare great gashes of flesh into our backs as well?
Are we not enduring the very same but of a slightly different experience?
Nothing new is under the sun.
One more scar is nothing I should have been surprised by. And yet I was.
Yet precious few actually discussed and dressed these wounds. But I am eternally thankful for them.
The thing about wounds is that they require novocaine, sutras a period of healing and then the sutras need to be removed.
Once when I split my elbow to upper bicep open after crashing my bike, I had a concerned neighborhood mother pour hydrogen peroxide on it and wash it out. Then upon arriving at the doctors, after 3 injections of novocaine, the doctor was unable to administer the process of stitching me back together because the novocaine did not take. We had to reschedule.
Isaiah 53:5 says “By His stripes we are healed”. But does our own process of justification of our own faith and its consequential process of personal sanctification require an echoing of His struggle?
I am daily or even hourly awaiting for the Holy Spirit’s administration of novocaine to take effect against the enemy as I lay in this foxhole awaiting the resurrection of my belief fully to allow the stitching together process begin.
The nightmares, interruption of sleep patterns, battles with eating and migraines no doubt are emotionally, neurologically and spiritually intertwined.
For this, at this level, there is no one to intervene on a physical plain. There have been outside steps taken to address these issues but the culmination of these together call for an intervention of a higher power.
It echoes back the same cry of “why hast thou forsaken me?”, saying “it is finished” and dying to three days later be resurrected. My three days is approaching four months most acutely, but three years when looked at in the longview.
There are precious few moments I can pray for myself, yet I still gladly pray and trust those prayers will be answered for when praying for others… as if I am mentally, emotionally and spiritually lost within an M. C. Escher sketch.
Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
Acts 14:22
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4:12-13
We know that there is no condemnation for any in Christ (Romans 8:1). However, we were previously children of wrath, our sin condemning and staining us.. So while He can, and often does heal and cleanse us of the stains and wounds that linger with us here, sometimes they are left till either He or we return.. and we can be confident that it is for our ultimate good. I have wounds unbound that if they were healed i would likely not be as inclined to rely on Christ and His grace- like the thorn Paul pleaded to be taken from him. So any affliction we here endure if we are in Christ is only for our good discipline, sanctification, means for hope, faith, and trust in Him and his love for us.
Living in this broken world, we can incur self inflicted wounds and we can also receive them from others just as we can hurt others ourselves. But regardless how created, we know that it was allowed to happen by our sovereign Lord. Job didn’t know why he was being so severely afflicted, and we may not either, but just as for Job- God has a good purpose, and reason for it- who knows how many peoples lives our suffering will aid, how many it will enable us to sympathize with. Who can count the people who Job’s story encourages and strengthens!? And just like Christ- who Job ultimately points to- the true righteous man who suffered for us.. we too can lend a healing hand of understanding to those suffering like we have.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.
Colossians 1:24
We forget we are in a war, and our suffering is often really training for a particular battlefield.
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
2 Timothy 2:3-7
This is so wonderfully helpful, thank you!!
These are wonderful verses and thank you so much for the encouragement!!!