O
THE
vercoming
Beware The ‘Theology Of Denial’
SERIES
‘YOU WILL WEEP AND MOURN … BUT [IN TIME] YOUR GRIEF WILL
TURN TO JOY … AND NO ONE WILL TAKE [IT] AWAY’
JOHN 16:20.
Beware of a half-baked ‘theology of denial’ that leaves you spiritually and
emotionally crippled for life. What we don’t deal with now will deal with us later
in harmful ways. When we stuff things into our emotional rubbish bin, we end up
Lord, there are times
squandering precious time and energy sitting on the lid, trying to keep the contents
when I don’t want to
from spilling out. Jesus said, ‘You shall know [embrace] the truth [even its painful
confront the pain;
aspects] and the truth shall make you free’ (John 8:32 NKJ).
I just want it to go
In A Better Kind of Grieving, Bill Hybels writes, ‘Fifty years ago industrialists
away. I pray that any
thought they could just bury toxic waste and it would go away. We’ve since learned
it doesn’t. It leaks into the water, contaminates the crops and kills animals.
grief I have buried,
Burying grief does the same thing. It leaks into our emotional system and wreaks
You will help me to
havoc. It distorts our perceptions of life and taints our relationships.’
deal with and bring
Hybels continues, ‘When my father died, I replaced the pain real fast. I think
me to a place of
I missed only four days of work. I just substituted my feelings of loss and
healing and freedom
disappointment with a frenzied ministry schedule. I ran from it. That was a bad
so I can look to the
move for me and for those around me.’
good times ahead
Are you running from pain today? Are you trying to trade it in prematurely for some
and not the pain other feeling? That’s not God’s way. Listen: ‘…you will weep and mourn…but [in
of the past that has time] your grief will turn to joy …and no one will take [it] away…’
trapped me for so (John 16:20-22 NIV).
long. Amen.
The Process Of Becoming Whole
‘WEEPING MAY ENDURE FOR A NIGHT, BUT JOY COMETH IN THE
MORNING.’ PSALM 30:5
The process of becoming whole involves: a) feeling deeply b) dealing honestly
c) making way for healing. Sometimes we try to fi nd ‘quick relief’ by releasing it
before we’ve gone through it. We do that because we fear the process. We run from
With
the pain or try to replace it with another feeling as soon as we can. Sometimes we
use alcohol, drugs, sex, money or ‘workaholism’. But that only makes it worse!
God’s help,
With God’s help, you can feel the pain, let it go, and move forward. Listen:
you can
‘…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning’ (Psalm 30:5).
You must go through one in order to get to the other.
feel the
Moses was the greatest leader Israel ever had. His death was an unspeakable loss.
pain, let it
Together God’s people wept on the Plains of Moab. For 30 days and nights God stood
go, and
by, allowing them to mourn in a healthy expression of grief. No hurrying; no divine
censure; no denial. Only when God saw that they had completed the process did He
move
tell Joshua to lead them forward. They had to go through to get through! We all do!
forward.
Listen: ‘After the death of Moses…the Lord spoke to Joshua…saying: “Moses My
servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to
the land which I am giving to them …Be strong and of good courage …do not be
afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go”’
(Joshua 1:1-9 NKJ). The God who spoke those words is your God!
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