Victory for past hurts

January 7, 2014

I am reading an amazing book by Beth Moore at this time.  It is called When Godly People Do Ungodly Things.  This is a question that has been burning in my heart for the last several years.  In fact, many of the studies I have done and the things I have taught and written about deal with this question or a variation on the question.  I look around and try to figure out why so many Christians live such a life of powerlessness.

Beth made a statement about how we defeat those things from our past that we have never dealt with completely.  The idea of her thought was to see that time and then see Jesus there with us through whatever had caused us to be victimized.  This same strategy was in something that I had read just a day before on powerful spiritual warfare and defeating the strongholds that Satan has set up in our lives.

So if I understand both these thoughts, when we remember a hurt that has happened and it is causing us to sin, or be in bondage, or keep us from living that victorious life we so desire, we stop and then look at that time in history once more, but this time we see Jesus being there with us through the horrors of what we had lived through.  I have had people share how effective this has been in their lives on overcoming past hurts and going on to healing.

As I was thinking about this I got a picture of why this is so effective.  Here we are remembering how we were used or abused.  The pain is as real as the first time, maybe we have learned to stand back in detachment and not feel it as much, but still it is real and it still has power over us.  If it does not cause us to sin directly, it has caused a weak place in our life that the enemy will come and attack us through. Then we change our focus, look and we are able to see Jesus there with us.  His eyes are full of tenderness and love.  His tears show us that he feels the pain and deep hurt that we do.  He gently folds his arms around us and draws us into his heart.  But why is this healing?  Why does this give us the power to overcome whatever terrible thing we have lived through?  How does this defeat all of Satan’s schemes?

One of the answers to these questions is found in Isaiah 53.  We read this scripture and see a picture of what Jesus went through on the cross in order to purchase salvation for us.  But more than salvation he has purchased our healing and our restoration.  So the reason that realizing Jesus was indeed with us through the darkest of the darkest times is because he was there in the victory he had purchased for us on the cross.  He had already taken our pain and our brokenness onto his own body.  We were not alone, have never been alone. 

Isaiah 53:4-6

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him. (NASB)

Not only have our sins been forgiven but he carried our sorrows, he bore our grief, he was beaten for our well-being, we are healed completely (body, soul and spirit) and whatever part we had in the sin or we fell into later because of what was done to us is gone, laid onto him.

Jesus was there with us in victory, the price already paid, the healing already purchased, the enemy already defeated.  Instead of remembering with pain, we can now remember the cost that was paid for us by our Savior and Lord.  The lover of our soul was there with us making us whole and pure and showing us his amazing love.

We can still cry “why me?” to the universe but now the question should be “why me, why does Jesus love me so?”  Victory is already there for us, we just need to realize and believe God at his word. 

I can tell you one thing, if you start seeing Jesus there with you in these horrible times with victory as well as compassion the devil will stop bringing it up so often.  After all, why would he want you to remember those things where you have found victory in overcoming his evil intentions?  So a double victory is won.

Another important step is to share this victory with someone you can trust.  Satan loses his grip even more when we bring things out into the light.  He seeks to keep things hidden so that our sisters in Christ will not know that there is power and victory available to all of us. And if you cannot quite get the victory yet, be sure to have someone pray with you as you learn to see God’s truth in your life. Having prayer surrounding you will always be a good idea.