Blessings and greetings to one and all in the name that is above every name, Jesus Christ our Savoir, Lord and King.
Church Hurt!
“Heal (Rapha) me, O Lord, and I will be healed (Rapha); save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.” Jeremiah 17:14
Lord, heal my hurt! Lord, I need to be healed of my past hurts, which is causing present problems in my life. I thought that I had been set free from it, gotten over it, released it, and restored from it, but I am still hurting from it and bleeding from it. Lord, heal my hurt!
Lord, heal my hurt! As long as we live on the plant earth, we will all experience some kind of hurt or another. But today, I want to focuses on “Church Hurt”, because so many of us are being hurt in the Church and we go through the process of being restored physically, but not in the other two realms of us. The other two realms are the soulish and spiritual realm – 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Lord, heal my hurt!
Lord, heal my hurt! Since we are talking about Church hurt, it would be good if I gave you a personal example of Church hurt. It is okay if I am real with you? Now, I have been in the Church all of my life and most of my hurt in life has come from the inside of the church. Many years ago as a young preacher, I was asked to come home to preach once a month. I had no problems with that at the time, because I was in school at Grambling State University and it was only two hours away. So once a month I came home to do that. That went on until I enrolled in Dallas Theological Seminary. My Pastor at the time wanted the church to start compensating me for coming so far away. He asked me to attend a church conference when he would bring the issues before the people. When he did that, all hell broke loose up in there; I have never seen church people act like that. They were totally apposed to the idea of compensating me for coming home. Keep in mind that I did not have a car at that time or a job of any kind. I was transferring from one school another school. After about a half hour or so of this _______________! (You fill in your own words.) I stood up and told them not to worry about it, because I will be here every third Sunday without any compensation at all. It was because I knew that the Lord would make a way for me to be there every third Sunday of the month and He did it for the next two years until I was unable do that any more. However, I left that night hurt, wounded, sad and depressed over how the people of God were acting and disappointed over their unwillingness to aid me in coming home each month. Lord, heal my hurt!
Lord, heal my hurt! That was my first of many experiences with being hurt in the church. Today many people are experiencing hurt in the church, out of the church, in there homes and on there jobs. But in most cases they leave the church hurt, leave home hurt, and leave jobs hurt and never get healed from that hurt. So every time something happens to get close to that hurt, they respond out of that hurt and not out of the Love of God. You know the old saying “hurting people hurt people”, but I want to add to that today. All people hurt people knowingly and unknowingly. Lord, heal my hurt!
Lord, heal my hurt! There are seven key factors in dealing with church hurt or any kind of hurt for a matter of fact. (1) You must be willing to admit that you are still hurt – Jeremiah 10:19. (2) You must be willing to truly forgive the other person or persons involved – Matthew 6:12-15. (3) You must be willing to face any road blocks to your healing – First Corinthians 13:2. (4) You must be willing to take a stand against yourself – Galatians 5:24; 6:12. (5) You must be willing to walk through it and from it – Ephesians 6:13. (6) You must be willing to let the Lord heal your hurt – Isaiah 1:19. (7) You must be willing to expose the hurt and the healing to rob the devil of his grip on that situation – Revelations 12:11. Lord, heal my hurt!
Lord, heal my hurt! Now, I want to close with giving a brief definition to the Hebrew and Greek word for heal. The Hebrew word for heal is the verb Rapha, which means to repair, restore health, heal, mend, fix, or cure. There are two key Greek words for heal that are very important to us: the verb Diasoz, which means to make thoroughly sound or whole (See Matthew 14:36) and the verb Therapeuo, which means to heal, cure, restore to health (See Matthew 4:23). Lord, heal my hurt!
On next week we will begin to explore these seven areas and see what else God will reveal about church hurt. Lord, heal my hurt.
Let us pray:
Father, thank you for the authority you have given to me to be victorious over the enemy in every area of my life. Through the authority given to me through the blood of Jesus, your word, your Holy Spirit, unfeigned faith, and the blessed name of Jesus Christ, I will always prevail over the enemy. I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ who loves me.
Father, I praise you for the realizations that the weapons you’ve given to me for spiritual warfare are not carnal. Instead, they are mighty through you to the tearing down of evil strongholds. I will use the weapons you’ve given to me to cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against knowing you, and I will bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Thank you Father for bruising Satan under my feet and for giving me the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ in all things: glory to His name which is above every name!
