Bandaging the Wounds — Morning Devotions

I have a feeling some men and women are held back in life—and by that I mean emotionally—in their relationships with others, and how they perceive God. All because of something that happened in the past. Sometimes it happened when they were a child, a teenager, or even 12 months ago—and it has totally occupied their mind, their thoughts, their behaviour and moods and it’s stopping them from moving on.

Maybe you have experienced rejection, been wounded emotionally, abused, abandoned—and although they’ve blocked it out, something still isn’t totally right. It feels strange—you want to move on, want to get on with life, but something always pulls you back. What’s going on? How do I explain to my friends and family?

We should recognise that our enemy, Satan, will use hurtful experiences to break our heart, to tear us down, to wipe us out and to steal our destiny! Strong words, I know. But if you are a Christian and believe the Bible, you’ll know what I mean.

Are you bleeding on the inside?

There are those I know who went through some very painful times of violation and abuse growing up and hid it all from their parents—and replaced the hurt with a giant bandage of activities, a big smile, and accomplishments. But in reality, they feel like they are bleeding on the inside. They hear messages:

• “You’re ugly”
• “You’re worthless”
• “You’re not pretty”
• “You’re a piece of trash”
• “You don’t matter”
• “You’re not special”
• “You’re gross”

And what do they do about it? Struggle, and put a giant bandage over this internal wound and just cover it up. They pretend it never happened. But here’s the sad reality: when you’re hurt inside, it’s eventually going to show up on the outside.

Since they felt so bad about themselves inside they had to do things on the outside to feel better about themselves—it was very confusing. They work hard and want everyone to like them but, in a strange twist, didn’t want people to get too close. Psychologists call this a compulsive fear of rejection. Bandages don’t heal deep wounds.

God wants to heal our wounds

I think it’s funny how a child can get a small scrape on their knee and as soon as a bandage is applied the crying stops and they have instant relief! Too many times we try to do that with emotional injuries but it doesn’t work.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

The great news is that God wants to heal every hurt! Jeremiah 30:17 says, “For I will restore health to you and I will heal you of your wounds, says the Lord.” He wants to comfort, to restore life, and restore the years that Satan has stolen. He declares:

“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving kindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you and you shall be rebuilt” (Jeremiah 31:3-4).

Jesus wants to heal you from the inside out. You may have things on the inside of you that have been eating away at you for years and you do not want to talk about it, face it, deal with it, or treat it. You’d rather ignore it. But just because we ignore something doesn’t make it go away.