Pathway to Peace预览

 

Mount of Beatitudes – North Shore of the Sea of Galilee – Behind Locked Gate 

Healing and Forgiveness  

Life is complicated.  Our unique paths and journeys are oftentimes strewn with unresolved wrongs and pain that imprison our hearts and our minds.  We need to forgive or receive forgiveness, and experience deep healing in cases of trauma and tragedy, oftentimes not even realizing it.  

Whatever the severity, unresolved wounds fester.  They skew the lens and filter through which we see and interpret the people and world around us.  We live hurt, afraid, non-committed, wary, and guarded to protect ourselves from further pain.  

Stress, anxiety, and discord materialize and create imposing roadblocks to achieving the peaceful and full life God desires for His family, a reality crying for resolution.  Forgiveness and healing break us free of these balls and chains.  Forgiveness and healing must be experienced where wrongs and pain have occurred to achieve peace.  

Because wounding is a perpetual element of our sinful human condition, working through hurt becomes a lifetime pursuit.  Alone and without good counsel, this is insurmountable, but our hearts and minds can change to become more like God’s – supernaturally and purposefully equipped to repeatedly forgive and overcome pain.  

Jesus perfectly embodied healing and forgiveness.  In fact, He taught and lived it throughout His ministry, so we can study and learn His well-articulated and proven path, because it is clearly presented in the Bible and it works.  We can respond by living out what we learn, empowered by God through the Holy Spirit, and achieve healing and forgiveness, moving us closer to a sustainable peace. 

In his Ph.D. dissertation entitled The Healing-Discipleship Ministry of Jesus Christ in Matthew (ProQuest LLC, 2018) 118 - 143, Kyle Howard Miller laid out how The Beatitudes, found in Matthew 5:1-12, serve as a perfectly sequenced biblical path to healing. We will focus on this path tomorrow.  Experiencing healing and forgiveness is life-changing and brings us into a oneness with God that can establish an indescribable peace within.

Important side note:  Most wounds require we stretch our mortal capabilities to navigate the formidable paths that lead to forgiveness and healing – and dig deep in areas of our lives that require great introspection and understanding.  A solid, biblically based professional would be a tremendous asset to this pursuit, especially if you are working through trauma.   

Where do you most need to receive forgiveness?  Whom do you need to forgive?  What is your greatest pain, the place needing the greatest healing?