FACING THE PAINFUL MEMORIES
(Yes, you can do it and have powerful victory!)
By Evangelist Diana Gray
Copyrighted (c) 2000, 2001, 2002  All Rights Reserved
 KJV Bible For All Scripture

     A special area of needed healing is that of hurting, inner emotions stemming from past memories.  Scripture calls bruised past emotions as well as physical and moral weaknesses, "infirmities." 
Luke 7:21 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. 

     How does a person deal with terrible, emotional memories from their childhood?  The only way a person can receive inner spiritual healing is by acknowledging that they have a past emotional problems.  This is important to recognize that they still are plagued by them.  When a bad painful inner memory surfaces, look at it.  That is right, turn around fully and look at it.  Make a conscience effort to walk toward the memory.  It can't physically hurt you this time. Oh your emotions may feel sorrow, sadness or anger but it can't physically hurt you again.  It is just a memory of a thing that happened in the painful past.  A painful part that still haunts your memories like a recurring bad nightmare.
     You might have been an innocent victim of what happened in the past, but you don't have to be a victim in the present, unless you allow it to be.  When you look at your memory fully and face it with courage, begin to pray thanking the Lord for getting you through it.  Praise the Lord in all things, even the painful events of the past.  You didn't like it at the time and it hurt terribly bad but just think, you wouldn't be the person you are today if it hadn't of happened now would you?  You learned something by it and are now in a position to help someone else with the same problem.  Interpersonal relationships have a lot in common with a how a person handles their past memories.  Forgiveness goes along way in helping to heal bad memories and a painful past.
     A person can't simply put these bad memories out of their minds as some people seem to suggest they can.  It's just not that easy!  Some well meaning people, think if you snap your fingers or say don't think about what happened, it will all go away, but they don't do they?  Painful inner memories resurface and resurface, over and over again like a bad dream.  When people use Godly wisdom and His Word they have a weapon to fight back.  This is what God's word says about sharing the past with others.  Please note that I said sharing and not gossiping, there is a difference.  Gossiping only causes one to sin which in turn causes more unforgiveness and new pain. 
     If you want to see a nasty chain reaction of hate and anger in the work place or a church, watch someone in the sinful act of gossip.  By the time it has done the most damage in causing great pain, the original story is as far from the truth as night is to day.  Confessing your faults allows someone else to help put a clean slant on things. 

     James 5:15-16 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 

    By seeing the picture of the past through someone else's eyes, it might not have been as bad as it is being remembered.  Time has a way of distorting the truth, altering the real picture of what happened years and years ago.  I don't mean you should ignore your pain but when you talk and share it with someone else, inner healing begins to take place.  This is why  we so badly need Christian fellowship with one another. By penetrating the level of forgiveness deep into our hearts, anxiety is released and memories begin to fade into the background.  Miraculously, fewer and fewer times will we even notice or remember what happened so long ago. 
     Inner infirmities can be emotionally very painful.  Qualities of human nature like moral, mental and emotional weaknesses are a part of everyone of us. We all have problems in one form or another like anxiety, depression, frustration, painful emotional scars and abandonment or rejection.  Inner conflicts are a result of these various weaknesses and infirmities.  Jesus knows and understands us and the way we feel because he too cried unto the Lord in the Garden at Gethsemane. 
     Many people in ministry feel that there is something wrong with them if they too fall on their knees crying before the Lord.  We all have our sins and weaknesses.  Not one of us is without painful problems.  The dead "to" Christ who go about their daily duties only thinking and worshipping one day a week on Sunday, have just as much trouble as a full born again believer.  There is no difference between the lost to Christ and the Saved where problems are concerned.   We all have them.  It's the way we handle them that counts.  A person who doesn't know Jesus has no hope of better whereas a born again believer has Heaven to look forward too.  We are not without sin but we are Saved!

    2  Corinthians12:8-10 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

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