Comfort for the wounded spirit

Proverbs 18:14 says “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear? In other words, it is easier to bear with a period of physical illness than to bear with a wounded, hurting heart. However, the Bible has a solution for us when things happen that wound our spirits.

Ps. 34:17 says “The righteous cry, and the Lord hearth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” This tells us two things on the way to a solution for our wounded spirits: First, we must bring ourselves into alignment with the Lord (to be accounted righteous by Him). Second, we are then assured, at the onset, that we will be delivered out of ALL our troubles. This means we can proceed with a restful attitude, having been assured of the outcome. If we can get this truth down deep into our spirits, it can have a tremendously calming effect upon us while we are going through the trial…often it is the stress of a situation, rather than the actual circumstances, that cause us the most pain. To be able to proceed with godly confidence that our Father is indeed going to see us through is to have a real head start toward the actual solution.

God gives us a pattern of principles to follow in dealing with painful, difficult things that occur in our lives. If we can get these principles in our minds ahead of time we will be better prepared to immediately focus on God’s Word:

(1) There is no place for fear…2Tim. 1:7 We need to resist the temptation to give way to fear. All fear, except the fear of the Lord, is of the devil.

(2) There is a small place for anger…Eph. 4:26 God gives us a tiny window of time to deal with our anger by forgiving the offending person(s). This frees us our minds and maintains our peace.

(3) There is a space for grieving…Eccl. 3:4 Grieving is good and healthy if not prolonged.

(4) There is a time for comfort…Heb.12:12, 13…God says to let what is wounded in us be healed. We have to finally make a decision to allow the Lord to comfort us as He promises to do. We receive this comfort by a decision of our will, activating our faith…deciding we will indeed believe the Lord and receive what He has promised. Then, we put our faith into action by praising Him for His wonderful gift of comfort…Ps. 30: 2,3,11,12.

May Jesus’ blessing of comfort indeed be yours in your time of need. Cathi Nowlen