Linda Stoll: This Is For All The Wounded Ones (and that includes you and me)

As I followed along in my Bible during a recent Galatians 5 sermon, my eyes wandered over to the left side margin of the crinkled page. And this question, scrawled in black pen way back in 2010, captured my attention ...

WHAT'S BROKEN INSIDE THAT CAUSES ME TO REACT?

I NEED TO PRAY FOR GOD'S KINGDOM TO REPLACE MINE.

I wrote about being unraveled and re-knit about a year ago. And you told me I wasn't the only one. Click here to read that 'true confessions' post.

We might be redeemed, but sin still encroaches. We're all in need of an ongoing, heavy duty connection with the Healer of our souls.

When our hearts are clogged with painful, untended wounds or lingering, unconfessed sin, it's no surprise that we tend to lob verbal knee-jerk reactions in conversations with those we do life with, particularly those we're closest to.

We lash out, we speak our minds without thought or care, we go on and on, our hidden agendas spewing forward as we spout our opinions with little sensitivity to the needs of the listeners held hostage by our diatribes.

If we are unable or unwilling to change our tune, we do serious harm to our valued relationships. We mar any testimony we may have. We sadden the heart of God.

When our hearts are tended and still, when the fruit of the Spirit fills our souls with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control {Galatians 5:22-23}, we're far more likely to respond thoughtfully to others rather than simply react with the first thing that flies off the top of our heads.

Our goal is to become so in love with our Heavenly Father and be so in step with the promptings of His Spirit that we swing wide the doors and invite Him to heal and forgive and re-shape us.

And wonder of wonders, we begin to respond to life's crazyness with a thoughtful wisdom that speaks blessing to other wounded souls.

Because we've been in the pit and we've been redeemed and released.

For when we offer the broken places to the Wounded Healer, He is able to mend that which has been torn along the way. The sin and the shame and the ugliness. The abandonment and the rending. The hurt and the disappointment and the messy sorrow of it all. The overwhelming fear and the creeping anxiety that so easily have made themselves at home along the way.

All the wearisome baggage that's been holding us hostage.

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As we become sensitive to the Spirit's beckoning minute by minute, we can more quickly give God any unsettledness that so easily wanders onto the scene. And if sin has a propensity to pile up, learning to promptly name it sooner rather than later in confession can become our default mode instead of storing it away for another day.

Constantly connecting with the Holy Spirit releases and frees us from all the junk that's prone to fill our soul's cracks and hidden corners.

As we release, release, release our hold on all the scenarios where we've sinned or been sinned against and the pain that's come to define us along the way, we are freed up to graciously respond to others instead of acting out in ways that harm.

We victoriously shed our roles as those who wound. And by His powerful grace, we become wounded healers.