Wounded: Minor
Ephesians 4:26-27 (CJB)
Be angry, but don’t sin — don’t let the sun go down before you have dealt with the cause of your anger; otherwise you leave room for the Adversary.
Hebrews 4:12 (CJB)
See, the Word of God is alive! It is at work and is sharper than any double-edged sword — it cuts right through to where soul meets spirit and joints meet marrow, and it is quick to judge the inner reflections and attitudes of the heart.
In life we all become wounded from time to time. We can be the cause of our own wounding or it can be by others. However, we don’t always realise it. Sometimes, when I’m exerting strength, like moving furniture, for example, I don’t notice that I have cut or grazed my shin or elbow.
Emotional and psychological wounds can similarly be missed when we are in the battles of life. Even in church, we may feel like we are doing great, but there may be knocks and bruises that we don’t notice at the time. Wounds of betrayal, control and even abuse, however small, can cause anger which may fester.
The passage above urges us to find the root cause as quickly as we can so our enemy Satan can’t use it against us. The Bible is the living, active Word of God and helps us separate our unrighteous anger and our pain response from the reality and awfulness of the situation. That’s where the Word will be sharper than any two-edged sword, helping us to discern our ungodly response(s) - like unforgiveness - when we should be responding with a godly spirit of grace and mercy.
Forgiveness is not saying what happened was ok; forgiveness is recognising that it was bad and still letting the other person off just like our heavenly father did for us. When we have identified the pain and dealt with our own sin, we can let God deep inside to heal the area that was traumatised. If we don’t do that, we’ll only ever be treating the surface infection.
Minor wounds may last a brief time and, like a small cut, need only a plaster, a kiss on the head and time to heal - a single prayer may suffice. We will look at deeper wounding tomorrow.
Prayer - Heavenly Father, I ask you to show me where I have unforgiveness in my life. Help me to discern situations, thoughts and attitudes in my life where I still act out of past pain rather than in the wholeness of your healing.