Our Infirmities

[Dreamer]

"He Himself took our infirmities." Matthew 8:17, NASB

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us...according to the will of God." Romans 8:26-27

The Problem: Fifteen years of ministry all over the world, (says David Seamands), have confirmed my belief that there is another realm of problems which requires a special kind of prayer and a deeper level of healing by the Spirit. Somewhere between our sins, on the one hand, and our sicknesses, on the other, lies an area the Scripture calls "infirmities."

We can explain this by an illustration from nature. If you visit the far West, you will see those beautiful giant sequoia and redwood trees. In most of the parks the naturalists can show you a cross section of a great tree they have cut, and point out that the rings of the tree reveal the developmental history, year by year. Here's a ring that represents a year when there was a terrible drought. Here are a couple of rings from years when there was too much rain. Here's where the tree was struck by lightning. Here are some normal years of growth. This ring shows a forest fire that almost destroyed the tree. Here's another of savage blight and disease. All of this lies embedded in the heart of the tree, representing the autobiography of its growth.

And that's the way it is with us. Just a few minutes beneath the protective bark, the concealing, protective mask, are the recorded rings of our lives.

There are scars of ancient, painful hurts...as when a little boy rushed downstairs one Christmas dawn and discovered in his Christmas stocking a dirty old rock, put there to punish him for some trivial boyhood naughtiness. This scar has eaten away in him, causing all kinds of interpersonal difficulties.

Here is the discoloration of a tragic stain that muddied all of life...as years ago behind the barn, or in the haystack, or out in the woods, a big brother took a little sister and introduced her into....incest

And here we see the pressure of a painful, repressed memory...of running after an alcoholic father who was about to kill the mother, and then of rushing for the butcher knife. Such scars have been buried in pain for so long that they are causing hurt and rage that are inexplicable. And these scars are not touched by conversion and sanctifying grace, or by the ordinary benefits of prayer.

In the rings of our thoughts and emotions, the record is there; the memories are recorded, and all are alive. And they directly and deply affect our concepts, our feelings, our relationships. They affect the way we look at life and God, at others and ourselves.

We preachers have often given people the mistaken idea that the new birth and being "filled with the Spirit" are going to automatically take care of these emotional hangups.

Understanding that salvation does not give instant emotional health offers us an important insight into the doctrine of sanctification. Sanctification is a process led by God, and it takes time. Emotional healing is also a process which takes time. Some even say that emotional healing is a part of sanctification, since we depend upon God to heal us.

What are some of these damaged emotions? One of the most common is a deep sense of unworthiness, a continuous feeling of anxiety, inadequacy, and inferiority, an inner nagging that says, "I'm no good. I'll never amount to anything. No one could ever possibly love me. Everything I do is wrong."

What happens to this kind of person, when he becomes a Christian? Part of his mind believes in God's love, accepts God's forgiveness, and feels at peace for a while. Then, all of a sudden, everything within him rises up to cry out, "It's a lie! Don't believe it! Don't pray! No one really cares. There's no one to relieve your anxiety. How could God possibly love you and forgive someone like you?"

Does the Gospel have a message for these various kinds of emotionally damaged persons? For if it doesn't offer healing for all of them, then we had better put a padlock on our church doors and quit playing Christianity.

Salvation is completely necessary and our eternal life depends upon it. No matter what anyone says or does, the Good News is still the Good News!

As far as emotionally damaged Christians are concerned, does God have some repairs for us? Yes, He does! The Holy Spirit works along with us in a mutual participation, for our healing, as we obey Christ and walk with Him step by step.

(More to come tomorrow)

 

[joy]

That is wonderful to read
Thank you so much for sharing.

 

[Dreamer]

Part 2 God's Repairs by David A. Seamands

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us....according to the will of God." Romans 8:26-27

There is another kind of damged emotion that we can call supersensitivity. The supersensitive person has usually been hurt deeply. He reached out for love and approval and affection, but instead he got the opposite, and he has scars deep inside of him. Sometimes he sees things other peopole don't see, and tends to feel things other people don't feel.

One day I was walking down the street and saw supersensitive Charlie coming toward me. I usually give him a lot of attention, but that morning I was very busy so I just said, "Hi, Charlie. How are you?" and passed on by.

When I got back to the office, a church memeber called me on the phone and asked, "Are you mad at Charlie?"

"Why, no. I just saw him down the street." Then I suddenly realized that I hadn't given Charlie the appreciation and the affirmation I usually do, knowing he is supersensitive.

Did you ever hear about the man who was so supersensitive he had to stop going to football games? You see, every time the team got into a huddle, he thought they were talking about him.

Supersensitive people need a lot of approval. You can never quite give them enough. And sometimes they seem very insinsitive. They have been hurt so badly that instead of becoming sensitive, they cover it by being hard, tough. They want to get even and hurt others. Does all this affect their Christian experience? You betcha!

Restoration: Forgive everyone who is involved in your problem. Facing responsibility and forgiving people are really two sides of the same coin. The reason some people have never been able to forgive is that if they forgave, the last rug would be pulled out from under them and they would have no one to blame. Facing responsibilty and forgiving are almost the same action; in some instance you need to do them simultaneously.

Jesus made it very plain that no healing occurs until there is deep forgiveness.

Forgive yourself: So many Christians say, "Yes, I know that God has forgiven me, but I can never forgive myself." This statement is a contradiciton in terms. How can you really believe God has forgiven you, and then not forgive yourself? When God forgives, He buries your sins in the sea of His forgiveness and His forgetfulness. As Corrie Ten Boom says, "He then puts a sign on the bank of the river which says. 'No fishing allowed.' In other words, you have no right to dredge up anything that God has forgiven and forgotten. He has put it behind His back. Through an inscrutable mystery, divine omniscience has somehow forgotten your sins. You can forgive yourself.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what your real problem is and how you need to pray. Paul said that often we do not know how to pray as we ought. (Rom 8:26) But the Holy Spirit prays in and through us, and makes intercession for us. Sometimes the Holy Spirit uses a temporary assistant in the form of a human counselor, who can help us to perceive what the real problem is. Sometimes the Spirit is able to do thris through God's Word or through some incident in life that suddenly makes us aware of our real problem. For it is important that we realize the true problem and know how we should pray. James reminded us that we sometimes do not receive because we pray for the wrong things (James 4:3). It may be essential for you to get help from a counselor or a pastor or a friend; then together with this person, you can ask the Holy Sprit to show you where your real need is.