It’s hard to look at ourselves through the lens of truth. We avoid the pain associated with real self-examination. And yet it cannot be avoided. The only way out is through it and we must enter this space in order to be healed. We do not go it alone. He is with us. Coming out, coming to Him, separating, and receiving all that we have from Him is exactly what we need in order to complete this step of healing.

Hebrews 12:12…”Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”

If we have a broken bone or burned flesh, we are in such pain that all of our focus is on that hurting and suffering part of ourselves. However, the pain drives us to seek relief. It can be what brings us to the only real healing – God Himself.

We have learned that God is trustworthy and we can come to Him with all of our vulnerable honesty. He will not leave us or turn His back on our transparency. He has already paid our debt and made us clean in our God-image but our human flesh is still ridden with the wounds of sin. We can come to Him and enter His presence as we are. We can come to Him because of what He has done for us without shame – we can lift our drooping hands. We can gain the strength we need through His indwelling Spirit and look at ourselves honestly – strengthen our weak knees. We can obey Him in our honest self-examination as He speaks truth over our lives – make straight paths for your feet. What is lame in us can be healed through the process of bringing it all to Him and sitting with Him in it.

This is not easy work but it is necessary work…we do it with Him and we do it by coming out from it and looking at it from a distance with Him to guide us and carry us through the pain of viewing it honestly and without shame.

I call it an inventory. I start at the beginning and I work my way through my whole life. I look at the times and moments when I became a victim – what was done to me. I look at the times and moments when I became a perpetrator – what I did myself. And I look at the ways I have attempted to rescue myself without God. I sit with Him in every detail as I work through each painful event or circumstance. I allow Him to enter the space as if I were living it again. I allow Him to speak to me through it. I receive Him in each instance and I allow His healing touch to penetrate the space. I receive His healing and forgiveness. I sit in it with Him.

This may take time and multiple visits as I journey through my life’s inventory. He leads me through the process and guides my steps. I may need other understanding helpers to come along side me through this process. It is a journey but I do not walk it alone or with shame. I experience His healing and I thank Him for it.

The wounds begin to lose their power and I find myself entering into a new space. It is not an easy walk but I am learning that I can endure it with Him.

Each step I take He is leading me to learn more about Himself and more about who I am with Him. I am getting to know and grow into the eternal me I will take with Him into eternity. My life is hidden with Jesus in this world but I will be fully alive and whole when I move with Him forever into the next.