Dealing With Trauma And Stress

When we approach God with a desire for our shortcomings to be removed, we come asking God to apply His unconditional love to our fears, to the gaps in our heart, to the pain in our memories.  We apply the cross of Jesus to our minds and hearts – the cross that says that every sinful broken act done to us, or done by us, is carried there by the suffering Jesus.  We ask God to remove our shortcomings by giving over to God all the disappointments in others, and in ourselves, all the judgments of ourselves and others, all the doubts about our ability to commit to one another in faithful love.  We come to God asking Him to pour His forgiving love into us extinguishing all our wrongs.  We then ask for a generous supply of the same forgiving love towards others who have wronged us. 

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors ...  For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  (Matthew 5:43-44; Matthew 6:12, 14-15 NIV)

We come to God genuinely desiring Him to remove from our minds and hearts all connection to trauma, to violence, to rejection and abandonment, to harsh words, to abuse of any kind, to hatred, to betrayal, to misunderstanding, and to anything at all that set in motion our destructive thoughts and behaviours.  How else could we ever follow the words of Jesus who commands us to bless those who’ve harmed us?  Anything less is choosing to continue to live under the bondage of a shortcoming.

Love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.  Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. (Luke 6:27-28 NLT)

We commit ourselves to the love of God – to receiving that love and staying in the presence of that love.   We hold our hearts in that love daily until we are completely filled to overflowing with this amazing love which removes every destructive influence within us.  As long as our hearts and minds retain remnants of sins done to us or by us, we will be prone to again act out our shortcomings in some way.  Let’s come to Jesus today so he can heal the damage in our hearts and our relationships.