Heart Wounds

Our youth pastor wrote this devotional on their web site. I thought it was most excellent and got permission to post it here.



• Week 116 July 30 •
I have been sick for over a week. I think my head must be in an invisible vice. Usually when I am sick I look for some medicine to make things better. Even right now, I'm looking for something to bring healing and health to my sick body.

It is generally obvious when we need physically healing, but it is not always as obvious when our hearts need healing. We can tell when we are physically sick by the runny nose, the headache, the fever, or the vomit. When we have wounds on our heart though the symptoms can be much more subtle.

I don't know what you have been through or what has happened to you thus far in life, but I bet that there are some wounds in your heart already that need healing. Perhaps they fester now and then and you reach out or lash out as a side effect. Perhaps you find yourself stuck in a bad relationship or an addiction of some kind. Often we turn to whatever it takes, to either help us forget our heart is hurt, or to ease the pain. Your heart needs healing and it will get it from somewhere, the question is... is it looking in the right place?

My youth years have left me with many wounds on my heart, some of which were given me by others and some which were self-inflicted. When I look at where I have been and what I have done I see the actions of someone in desperate need of healing. I have looked many places, but the only place my heart has truly found the healing it's looking for is in Christ Jesus.
Our heart won't stop looking for ways to heal until it finds what it is looking for, and that my friend is, ultimately, God.

When God created us he placed within us a desperate need for Him. Augustine puts it this way; "You have created us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." The healing our heart needs can only come through; first a relationship with God, and then a pursuit of his own heart. I caution you that it may take some time, and it may be uncomfortable at first.

However, I urge you to take a minute and voice this Psalm to God "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." (Psalm 139:23) Take a moment to ask God to reveal to you the wounds of your heart that need his healing. Confess where you have sought healing from other places. And, allow God to start his healing process in your life.
He's ready to start the healing process, are you?

Go read Psalm 138
-Josh