Inner healing. Healing from the inside out. Letting God take the pains of the past and make them gardens of beauty in our soul. Its a beautiful thing to see that kind of transformation. We take a painful memory, bring it before the Lord, feel the feels, hand over the wrongs whether done by you or against you, let Him speak into the moment, showing You all He wants to reveal, and allow Him to bring healing. When you revisit that memory in the future, it will have less of a sting. That is the renewing of your mind, healing of your soul. He makes all things new. Painful memories will be turned into revelations of His goodness, mercy, and compassion.

When you think of all those places in your soul, all the hurts of the past from birth to now… it feels like it would be impossible to ever reach the end of the list. It can seem so daunting and overwhelming to think about diving into your soul and finding all the trauma, big and small, and pulling them out. Feeling the emotions all over again, remembering all the details. As you spend time with the Lord, allow the Holy Spirit to reveal what He would like to heal next. Identifying those places and allowing God into that memory gives him access and allows Him to apply a healing salve. It takes time and patience and a lot of vulnerability, maybe a bit of courage. The freedom comes when we have our eyes set on Jesus, the One bigger than our past, bigger than our pain. When our eyes are on Him, and not on our pain, the healing comes so naturally.

What is traumatic to one person might seem small to someone else. The instability of moving from place to place might be traumatic to a child. That wouldn’t seem to be a big deal to someone whose traumatic experience was having been abused. Both people have experienced pain. God sees them both the same. Pain is pain. The beauty is that we serve a God who heals. He sees our pain for what it is and His desire is to heal and restore. Bring it all before the Lord. If you feel the source of your pain is too insignificant to talk to God about, then you’re listening to the voice of the enemy who is trying to justify your pain so you will hold on to it. You might hear, “It’s not that bad. Much worse has happened to others. I shouldn’t feel this pain for such a small reason”. That is the voice of shame, not of God. Pour it all out at the feet of Jesus. He cares for you and wants to heal every part. May we never hold on to what He’s not required of us, and may we receive all He has for us. Big or small – God heals it all.

-Crystal