Wounds and Warriors

Like soldiers returning from battle, all of us bring injuries, memories and enemies back to our relationships that can sabotage our lives. We are walking wounded with battle scars, broken hearts, and snake-bitten minds. Unfortunately, these wounds are not badges of honor either. When the right buttons are pushed, a cascade of emotions, conflicts and behaviors are ejected onto our relationships, homes and our work.

The arch-enemy, Satan, wants us to dwell on these wounds, relive and recycle them driving us to drink, or some other self-medicating distraction. The longer we live without healing, the longer the enemy can strangle our futures, hopes and dreams as well as destroy our ability to realize God’s abundant life in the present.

Often, we don’t even realize Satan’s grip and how the past is affecting us. The symptoms get so bad the pain exceeds the fear of addressing it. So, it takes a third party to point it out and it feels like scratching the scab open, revealing the wound that never healed.

Ever wonder why certain things trigger your feelings of sadness, prolonged depression, anger outbursts, or passive aggressiveness?

So what do we men do? We polish up our persona, or surround ourselves with superficial friends, ignore the hurt and pretend there’s nothing wrong. It’s masking the deep need to heal. We treat “Big Bleeders” with band aid solutions knowing inside this particular will break open again. Eventually, the blood loss will cause any soldier to collapse and another must carry him into the operating room. God happily obliges.

In the Bible, and even now, one of Jesus’ primary missions is to heal. He’s the Great Doctor. When Jesus walked the Earth, he made the blind to see, lame to walk, rose people from the dead. He has power to heal anything. But you have to believe.

How to Heal Deep Hurts With Heavenly Medicine

In John 4, we read an example of how Jesus heals deep hurts that mess with our lives. After a long journey, Jesus stops at a well for a drink of water. He confronts a Samaritan women revealing that He knows about her past sexual entanglements that were affecting her life at the moment. She had to face it, confess it and believe Jesus could heal her. Then, she was healed and went out and told the neighborhood, starting a revival in her town.

1. Face It.

The first step to healing is to admit there’s a problem. The Samaritan women knew she needed help and when Jesus saw through her facade and into her heart, she was ready.

In other words, we have to be willing to be carried to safety. If we’d rather keep hiding from healing, then Jesus can’t put you on His back.

• “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” -- James 5:16

2. Know it.

So many times, the first part of the verse “...the truth will set you free,” gets overlooked. Jesus said in James 8:31-32 that you have to “know” the truth before freedom. Some truths we don’t want to dig up, and we compartmentalize them or we just don’t realize there’s a problem. It takes effort to know something. You have to discover it. Learn about it. So, after you’ve faced the problem head on, now learn about it.

• “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” -- James 8:31-32

3. Deal with it.

After you’ve faced it, and know it, you can’t camp out there. Often healing comes instantly, but with emotional hurts, it may take some work and some time. You may feel alone, but you’re not alone. God is with you. He was with you then, and He is now. It will help to surround yourself with “safe” people, other Christian men to talk with because over time, we can learn to suppress the memories. But through the Word, and with other men, Jesus will take us back to see the issue plainly.

When you’ve acknowledged it, learned from it and dealt with it, God redeems it. Redeem means to pay and regain possession. Jesus bought you as was written about years before He walked the Earth. Ironically, it was through His wounds that we can be healed.

• “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” -- Isaiah 53:5

4. Share it.

After facing it, learning from it, and dealing with it, healing begins and then something amazing happens. You grow from it. God is molding our character like a potter molds clay. Through imperfections, He can make a masterpiece. After Jesus healed the Samaritan woman, she came out of hiding and spread the news about it. Many believed Jesus was the Messiah after hearing her.

We are all walking wounded. But there’s opportunity buried under those scars. Opportunity for new life on Earth and for eternal life. But you have to believe that a visit to the Great Doctor will help you experience the future in the healthy way.

*Every Man Ministries was founded by Kenny Luck, men’s pastor at Saddleback Church. Kenny created the Sleeping Giant program as a way to give men the tools and resources to make the most of their own men’s ministries and make the most of their walks with God.