Healing for Families

If you have been in a family you have been disappointed, hurt, rejected, or misunderstood. If not in your current family than the family you came from. It seems to experience these things is as human as breathing. No where in Scripture do I see a promise of an easy life, a life that is blessed does not necessarily mean easy. In my own journey with the Lord I have found that I have, at times, carried many of these painful experiences of family. I believe the reason we carry these things is because we are looking for some validation that the hurt, sadness, or disappointment is real. Self-comfort is deceptive because it keeps us stuck and can lead to self-pity and dispair. The Lord recently pointed me to a passage in Isaiah 53:4 in which it says that Jesus has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, and pains but the error that's pointed out in this passage is that we thought He was afflicted by God instead of that He did this for us. If my image of Jesus is one of a Savior that floated through life seemingly unscathed by the difficulties of the world because He was God I will miss His humanity. If Jesus was not fully human than how can He understand what I have been through. I must have my mind renewed to the truth of His humanity and His total identification with the sin infested, pain-filled, and troubled humanity that you and I live in. When I see that Jesus experienced what I have experienced than I receive the validation my heart has been looking for then I can give Him my griefs, sorrows, and pains. The amazing thing is that God will allow us to try to comfort ourselves unsuccessfully. What does all this have to do with family? We are most likely hurt in our intimate relationships, as well as blessed, so families are a place where we can heal. I recently challenged someone to see their family from the perspective of Heaven, since according to Ephesians 2:6 we are seated with Him in heavenly places in Christ. Also Jesus encourages us to release Heaven into earth in the Lord's prayer. My friend began to see his family restored, reconciled, and healed. He just sent me an email that he is seeing miraculous changes in his family. Looking at our families from the world's perspective can lead us to believe the barriers and walls will never be overcome but this is a perspective without the finished work of Christ. I pray you will get Heaven's perspective because this is where the Will of God is done perfectly.

In His Grace,
Bret