The Lord says, “Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him’” (John 7:38).
Sometimes our hearts are not overflowing with these living waters of which Jesus speaks. If so, it may be because we have been holding on to old wounds that are preventing us from being the hands and feet of Jesus to those around us.
Acknowledging Our Brokenness
We live in a broken world, and sometimes facing our brokenness and wounds is the most important and yet the most difficult step we can take towards the healing that will transform our lives and make us whole again. When we acknowledge our wounds, we learn to have more compassion for ourselves and for those around us.
Further, our self-knowledge leads to healing. Once we understand ourselves and others better—especially how past experiences have an immense impact in all areas of our lives—we can start to live in the freedom that Christ has promised to us. It is important that we each give ourselves permission to find healing from all that oppresses us.
A Place of Encounter
The heart is a place of love and encounter. It’s in the heart that we feel love and give love.
Our hearts are also the place where we hold the pain from our wounds. For us to be able to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to those around us, we first need to learn how to untangle our hearts from beliefs we may have internalized because of our wounds. Journeying into those crevices of our hearts that store pain is not always easy. Remember that with God anything is possible.
The heart of a woman is very precious to God. God wants to speak to our hearts; He desires a deeper relationship with each of us, but it is completely up to us whether we let Him in or not.
Knots Can be Undone
Our wounds tend to create knots around our hearts. These knots consist of the accumulation of our sins, our wounds, and the pain we experience living in this broken world filled with broken people. We can ask our most gentle Blessed Mother to help us untangle the knots around our hearts. The Novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots is very powerful! And we all know that Jesus never says no to His mother.
God Desires for Your Heart to be Refreshed and Renewed
Jesus has a merciful Heart and knows that all of us have experienced heartbreak, rejection, and failure. Let us lift our eyes so that the gaze of our hearts is fixed upon His Heart, Whose love for us is what heals us.
God desires only good things for us and He wants our hearts to be renewed and refreshed. But it’s important to understand that while God is for us, we have an enemy who wants nothing more than to destroy us. Satan is very present in our world today. He is a master manipulator and the father of all lies. These lies can also become knots around our hearts that are very hard to come undone.
Distinguishing Between God's Truth and Satan's Lies
Friend, have you ever felt bombarded with thoughts of fear, sadness, anxiety, and worry? Have you ever felt like you are not enough, not worthy of love, or that you just don’t measure up to other people’s expectations? Have you ever felt alone and that nobody cares about you? That you are not precious in God’s eyes, that you were not created for good works. Or that God only uses other people and not you?
If so, keep in mind that those thoughts are nothing more than lies from the enemy. God says you are precious and valuable, and He loves you.
It is also very important to remember our true identities from time to time. Once we know who we are and Whose we are, our lives will never be the same again. The enemy loves to plant doubts in our minds about our identities, because by doing so he can easily cause great pain in all areas of our lives. Society wants us to believe that our identity lies in our looks, possessions, habits, what we do for a living, and even in other people’s opinions of us.
Who We Are is Not Defined by What We Do
As women we tend to define ourselves by the things we do, and by how well we do these things. And for those of us who are mothers, when we become mothers we have this tendency of defining ourselves by motherhood. We have all these expectations for our kids and where they are not met, we often feel like a failure.
Motherhood is a great gift and blessing from God but we should be careful that we are not defining ourselves purely by our motherhood vocation. Identifying ourselves based on our lives’ roles isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we must remember that none of our roles can give us the identity we truly long for—only Christ can do that.
Keep in mind that the devil even confronted Jesus’ identity.
Matthew 4:1-4 says:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’”
Even though the devil knew that Jesus had come from God, he still dared to confront His identity with the goal of tempting Him. Make no mistake, the enemy does the same to us by suggesting all kinds of doubts, insecurities, and fear to enter our minds and hearts.
And these fears and insecurities, if let in and left unchecked, can affect your relationships with family and friends, the way you react to people, your ability to trust, and the list goes on . . . Sadly, the most common place to be affected by these fears and lies is your relationship with God the Father.
Jesus: the Healer of Our Hearts
Go to the Lord in prayer today. Seek Him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Place yourself before Him in His Real Presence of the Eucharist. Ask the Lord to untangle your heart from any identity lies from the enemy and replace it with His truth, love, and mercy.
Are you ready to allow the perfect heart surgeon, our Lord Jesus Christ, to untangle the knots of your hearts so that you can live a life free from all the oppresses you?
Elza Spaedy grew up in Brazil in a large family of 7 brothers and 3 sisters. Since finding healing and restoration from the painful childhood trauma of sexual abuse, Elza has been on fire for the Lord, ready to let Him use her and her story to help heal others.
Elza is the author of three books- Freedom Through Christ; Healed and Restored; and Spiritual Mentoring, as well as a retreat leader. Elza founded Healed and Restored over 4 years ago- a non-profit ministry that helps women heal from all types of trauma and assault. Elza loves to entertain and enjoys preparing and sharing a great meal with family and friends. She lives with her family in Charlotte, NC. Find out more about her here www.healedandrestored.org
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