“My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my
foolishness.” (Psalm 38:5)
POWERFUL: Our souls are wounded from the terrible things that others do to us, but often we are also wounded from our own sin.
Sometimes the deepest wounds in our soul are the result of personal sin and the effect it has had on our minds, emotions, and how we view ourselves in general.
Results: We may be riddled with guilty thoughts and feelings, and experience self-rejection or even self-hatred.
Our Sins…
· They don’t only wound us.
· They wound the people we love and care about.
· And they are left with the wounds that we have caused.
· The people who love and care about you may sometimes have full resentment and prefer not to spend time with you anymore.
· This treatment from those you love leaves you with wounds of your soul.
· It leaves you feeling rejected from those you’ve hurt by your decisions.
· This is what happened in the story about Julie, the alcoholic.
Example Story: Julie is a parent with Adult Wounded Children, whom SHE wounded.
1. What can Julie do now?
2. What can heal those types of wounds?
3. What can get rid of the pain she’s feeling?
ANSWERS From Joyce Myer, the author – Page 105 (3rd paragraph)
a. First thing to do is talk openly with God about your past. (Don’t hold back nothing)
i. King David sinned greatly by committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband, Uriah, murdered to prevent him from knowing what David had done.
ii. He then took her for his wife.
iii. It finally made him miserable enough that he had to confront it.
b. Joyce put in her own words how she believed David was feeling.
i. “When I was silent, before I confessed my sin, I felt as if I were wasting away and my soul groaned all day long.”
ii. I knew that You, God, were displeased, and I continually felt You dealing with me.
iii. My soul felt as if I were living in a drought in summer.
iv. I finally acknowledged my sin.
v. I didn’t hide anything, and I confessed until everything was out in the open.
vi.
When I did, You instantly forgave my
iniquity and guilt (Psalm 32:3-5)
c. The Second thing to do is receive the forgiveness you have asked for.
i. Receive it by faith.
ii. Remember, your feelings may not change immediately.
iii. Learn to meditate on Scripture about the forgiveness of God and the amazing mercy of God until these truths become a revelation in your life.
iv. Once this happens, your feelings will line up with the truth of God’s Word.
David acknowledged his sin with a repentant heart. (A heart that has turned from sin). And God instantly FORGAVE HIM.
God Already Knows…
(bottom of pg. 105)
1. Although God already knows everything we do at all times, it is important for us to acknowledge our wrongdoing fully because that helps cleanse it from our souls.
2. We can talk to God at any time about anything and know that we will never experience judgement or rejection.
3. Talking about the things that are hidden in darkness is often the very thing that releases us from them.
4. God desires TRUTH in the inner being (Psalm 51:6)
Don’t Be Afraid of the Light
a. Don’t ever be so afraid of the light that you choose to remain in darkness.
b. Although David had ignored his sin for a long time, it is obvious from his confession that he felt the weight of it.
c. Perhaps he stayed so busy that he did not have to deal with it, or
d. He may have made excuses for it.
Discussion:
· We will try to avoid our sin by staying busy
· We will try to avoid our sin by ignoring the sin.
· We will try to avoid our sin by making excuses.
· We will try to avoid our sin by blaming it on someone else. (if they wouldn’t have done what they did, then you would not have done what you did.)
NUGGET: We will NEVER be free from the burden of sin unless we take responsibility for it and bring it out into the open – first with God and then, if necessary, with people.
Jesus has already paid for our sins, and forgiveness is available if we will draw on it by faith.
What else can you do?
A. Talk openly with the people you have wounded.
B. Do more than just say “you’re sorry”.
C. Share with them what you were going through at the time you hurt them and how deeply sorry you are for what you did.
D. Humbly ask them to forgive you and give you another chance.
E. Don’t make excuses, because if you do, it will lessen the effect of your apology.
What if they are unwilling to forgive you?
A. Tell them you understand and pray for them on a regular basis.
B. Ask God to give them the grace to forgive you because He is truly the only ONE who can do that.
C. Ask Him to heal the wounds in their souls.
D. Continue to show love toward them as opportunity presents itself.
a. Love covers a multitude of sins (I Peter 4:8)
b. It also has the ability to melt even the hardest hearts.
c. It will eventually have a wonderful healing effect on them.
E. You will need to be patient.
a. Because it will probably take time for the people we have hurt to believe we have changed and are truly sorry.
F. Remember that just as our wounds have taken time to heal, theirs will also.
Don’t live with the Weight of Blame (Bottom of page 107)
Even if something that we did hurt someone, that doesn’t mean that we must live eternally with the feelings of guilt and blame.
A. Once you have repented and asked others to forgive you for any pain that you have caused them, you need to let go of the blame.
B. Definition of blame: To accuse or condemn.
a. Stop accusing and condemning yourself.
C. God’s Word promises that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1).
D. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it (John 3:17)
E. Give that person to God to heal.
F. It’s difficult to release the guilt when you’ve deeply hurt someone, but you must be FREE even if they refuse to be free.
An Urge from Author: (top of page 109)
I urge you to release it and realize that although you cannot go back and undo something you have done that hurt someone else, there is nothing that is impossible for God. He can change the heart of the one you hurt and heal the wounds you both have.
It is very difficult to release the burden of our actions, but it truly is the ONLY thing we can do in order to go on with life.
I want to---But it’s too Hard (Middle of page 109)
We should not park at the point of our pain that was caused by what others have done to us or what we have done to them. Doing so can leave us with wounded souls.
God offers us a new beginning. That means we must put the past behind us and not look back. Let go of all blame, shame, and guilt from the past, and let God show Himself strong in your life.
Jesus said that no one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62)
- This means that we cannot experience the amazing life God is offering unless we stop looking back at all of our mistakes from the past. Letting go of the past may be hard to do, but it is much better than reliving it every day of your life.
Stop saying that the things God asked you to do are too hard.
- God gives us His Spirit to do hard and difficult things
- We can do the things that people who live without God in their lives are not able to do.
-
What happens when you keep believing doing God’s Will is too hard?
ü It will cause you to backslide in your commitment to Christ.
ü At one time you truly fully intended to obey the Lord, but when He asked you to do something that was difficult, you decided it was just too hard and went back to their old way of living.
ü Many of the disciples who once followed Jesus turned back to their old way of life when He asked them to do things that they perceived as being too hard (see John 6:60-66).
God never asked us to do anything UNLESS He enables us to do it.
STOP Punishing Yourself
No matter what you have done, and no matter how bad it was, there is a NEW BEGINNING for you. Believing that is the first step toward your new life.
We frequently feel that we deserve punishment, so we punish ourselves by continuing to be miserable.
The Most important thing is that WE STOP the bad behavior. TURN COMPLETELY from it. Then we sincerely REPENT without any hidden motive and/or excuse.
You can’t forgive yourself if you are still connected to the sin or the bad behavior. You cannot trust yourself to continue and control your flesh. It cannot do it. Release yourself from that sin and bad behavior so you can FREELY and COMPLETELY stop punishing yourself. TURN COMPLETELY from that behavior.
Don’t trust your feelings or flesh! Trust God to heal you.
Then the Good news of the Gospel of Christ takes our punishment. Jesus was wounded for our transgressions
(Isaiah 53:4-5).
Jesus carried the pain of the punishment that WE DESERVE. Since He was punished, we should not punish ourselves…JUST STOP THE SIN.
Jailor – Released you.
Don’t reject Jesus’!
Jesus became our substitute!
He has suffered and has been punished for our sins.
He was wounded for our transgressions.
His wounds have healed our wounds.
We must let GO of the past.
You can trust God with all the mistakes of your past. He is able to heal and save to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25).
No one is beyond His reach…not you, and not the people you may have hurt.