HELP LORD, I'M HURTING!

Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried... 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.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to prisoners... to comfort... giving a garland... gladness... praise. He restores my soul.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also dwells secure.

A wounded spirit, who can bear?

I have come in order that you might have life -- life in all its fullness.

I am leaving you a gift -- peace of mind and heart! And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid.

And may the God of peace himself sanctify you through and through... and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete.

Why are you angry with me for healing the whole man... ?

His wounds have healed ours!

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Forgive your brother from your heart.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.

(Isaiah 53:4-5, 61:1-3, NASB; Psalm 23:3, 16:9, RSV; Proverbs 18:14, KJV; John 10:10, GNB; John 14:27, LB; 1 Thessalonians 5:23, AMP; John 7:23, NIV; 1 Peter 2:24, LB; Romans 12:2, NIV; Matthew 18:35, GNB; Hebrews 13:8, NIV)


It happens to every one of us. We have all been hurt deeply, down inside, often through no fault of our own. These hurts of the past influence our lives and the way we act and react today. Transactional Analysts say that some of the condemning 'parent tapes' that have been replaying in our minds since childhood, need to be erased. All things are possible with God, but does he heal past traumatic experiences?

God, our Creator, who tells us that 'even the hairs of your head have all been counted', cares about every aspect of our lives. He, who suffered as one of us, understands our pain, our fears, our hurts. He has compassion on his children as we try to cope with troubled minds, harmful memories, and damaged emotions that still cripple us today.

The same Jesus who came to seek and save the lost, also came to bind up the brokenhearted, to heal, and to give us a life that is full, free and joyous. The same Saviour who died for our sin, also bore our griefs and sorrows. He is willing to bring healing to the whole person.

He waits for us to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the hurts we have repressed, and to face willingly past painful experiences that we have tried so hard to forget. We can 'become like little children' and invite Jesus to take our hand and go back into every negative situation and visualise his presence there with us. In his love he, who freely gives us all things, will reach out to pour oil into our wounds, bringing healing and peace and enabling us to forgive those who have hurt us.


Walk with me back through the years, Lord,

As I place my hand in thine,

Talk with me about my fears, Lord,

While I travel mem'ry lane.

Speak in my imaginings, Lord,

As I picture Jesus there,

Bring to light the hidden things, Lord,

That I've pressed down year by year.

Heal all that still hurts inside, Lord,

Until I feel whole and strong,

Until love and peace abide, Lord,

And forgiveness flows along.

Marj Donellan

Medical science recognises that emotions such as fear, sorrow, envy, resentment and hatred are responsible for the majority of our sicknesses. Estimates vary from 60 per cent to nearly 100 per cent. Emotional stress can cause... serious diseases too numerous to mention.

S.I. McMillen, None of These Diseases

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,

Raze out the written troubles of the brain,

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff

Which weighs upon the heart?

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

God wills healing of the body and mind.

Jamie Buckingham

Somewhere between our sins and our physical ailments lies that part of our lives where we find many of our real failings as human beings --our emotional weaknesses and problems... Christ came to free us from the evil that burdens us... Psychologists have discovered that we are deeply affected not only by what we do, but by what happens to us through the sins of others... if we are denied love... it may affect... our ability to love, and our ability to trust [others] -- or God. Inner healing is simply this: Jesus... can take the memories of our past and heal them... and fill with his love all these places in us that have been empty for so long, once they have been healed and drained of the poison of past hurts and resentment.

Francis MacNutt, Healing

The study of psychology is helpful in pointing out the roots of our sickness and how the evil in people and in the world twists our personalities. But while psychology is strong on the human analysis of our problems it is not so strong on cure. With the help of Jesus, however, we can get at the childhood wounds that hinder our growth and compel us to act in ways that we know are wrong but can't seem to help... Jesus was a human being like you, and in his humanity suffered in that very area where you need healing so that you might be healed; Jesus can walk back into the past and change its effects upon your present life.

Francis MacNutt, The Prayer that Heals

Prayer for inner healing always involves at root a decision to forgive... The purpose of healing... is to restore a person to the original purpose for which he was created, to gift him with the courage to be. It is to set him free from judgment and condemnation and fear about what others think of him.

John and Paula Sandford, The Transformation of the Inner Man

When we speak of inner healing, we refer to the experience in which the Holy Spirit restores health to the deepest area of our lives by dealing with the root cause of our hurts and pain... Since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, he is able to go back into our lives and heal the traumatic episodes. Very often we have suppressed the hurtful occurrences so completely that we are not even aware of their bind upon our hearts. If we let him, the Holy Spirit, who reveals all things, is able to bring to our awareness the situation... he will never overcome our free will but will wait patiently for us to invite him to enter... 'What can the Lord Jesus do to your imagination if you let him in?'

Ruth Carter Stapleton, The Gift of Inner Healing

God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel... You are as much alone with him as if you were the only being he had ever created... His life is not dribbled out moment by moment like ours... If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Our mind functions like a high-fidelity tape recorder, faithfully storing away all that we experience from the time we were born. The recording includes... the feelings, good or bad, desirable or undesirable which accompanied those experiences... Whether they be in our mind at the moment, or are able to be recalled, or now deeply forgotten, [they] have left their mark on us.

Jim Glennon, Your Healing is Within You

There are so many adults with fears of water, dogs, cats, heights, elevators, etc. As adults, we try to overcome these fears, we feel embarrassed because of our 'hang-ups'; we try to use our intellect and reason the fears away... Jesus is the only one who can break those chains.

Betty Tapscott, Inner Healing through Healing of Memories

I believe that the healing love of Jesus Christ can release our inner child. In fact, I think this is part of the message involved in proclaiming 'liberty to captives' (Luke 4:18) which Jesus announced at the beginning of his ministry. Each of us has experienced traumas which continue to affect our lives... but the child within us never forgets anything.

Barbara Leahy Shlemon, Healing Prayer

By going back to memory after memory and turning them over to the Spirit, past hurts will no longer control me; rather, the freeing power of the Spirit will rule.

Dennis Linn and Matthew Linn, Healing of Memories


Heavenly Father, my wound is as deep as the sea, who can heal me? No-one is near to comfort me, no-one to restore my spirit, but I will pour out my heart like water in your presence Lord, for great is your faithfulness, you are good to the one who seeks you. You O Lord reign forever, restore me, renew my days as of old.

Lamentations -- NIV

Lord, I humbly come to you now and ask you to take my hand and walk with me down those dark corridors of my past. In my mind and my imagination I can picture you now. I see your kind face, your eyes with their yearning love. l feel the firm but gentle pressure of your hand, so I take courage and walk back: I see it now, that terrible hurt when I was a small child...

With you I press on and push open one by one the doors of my memory: When no-one would listen to me and I was punished wrongly...

When I felt rejected and unwanted...

The frustration of being totally misunderstood...

Help me now Lord to force open the next door that I've always kept tightly closed, the door of that traumatic experience. l will walk in and look at it in your presence, Lord -- I cry out to you as I feel again the terror of it! Jesus, you are there with me, light and love flood the room, and I am not afraid any more...

Thank you, Lord, for the glorious, powerful, caring Father that you are. My heart surges with the warmth and strength of my love for you. Thank you for the healing and wholeness I feel within as your love washes over me. The sting has gone, that dreadful resentment has vanished. It is so good to find that it is easy to freely forgive. I praise you with all my heart.


A Benediction

Stand tall now, knowing that by God's mercy you have been healed and made whole deep within your being. May the compassion of the Father, the sensitive tenderness of the Holy Spirit, and the warm guiding hand of Jesus be with you throughout this day. Amen.

Rowland Croucher, ed., Still Waters Deep Waters (Albratross/Lion), chapter 20.