How To Heal a Wound That Won’t Heal
Do you have a wound that won’t heal?
“A wound that has been present for more than six weeks is considered a chronic wound and may need special treatment,” according to Dr. Prasad Kilaru, a plastic surgeon and director of the Washington Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine.
Have
you ever had a cut that required stitches? Have you ever had a surgery
of any kind? Deep cuts and surgical procedures leave wounds that often
require stitches. Eventually the stitches are removed and the pain goes
away. What do you do about wounds you can’t see? How do you begin to
stitch emotional wounds embedded deep within the recesses of one’s
heart?
Hidden wounds are memories that hurt
Hidden wounds come from prejudices in society. They come from family members (they are the ones that hurt the most). Sometimes they come from parents, our children, our siblings, and aunts and uncles. You can get wounded in the work place. They’re everywhere.
I’ve been a pastor for a long time and I’ve talked to people and I’ve learned two truths about life.
“A wound that has been present for more than six weeks is considered a chronic wound and may need special treatment,” according to Dr. Prasad Kilaru, a plastic surgeon and director of the Washington Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine.
Have
you ever had a cut that required stitches? Have you ever had a surgery
of any kind? Deep cuts and surgical procedures leave wounds that often
require stitches. Eventually the stitches are removed and the pain goes
away. What do you do about wounds you can’t see? How do you begin to
stitch emotional wounds embedded deep within the recesses of one’s
heart?Hidden wounds are memories that hurt
Hidden Wounds are Memories That Hurt
Hidden wounds are the recollections from your past that when you think about them, they still cause pain in your life. Some define them as memories of abandonment. Some have memories of abuse. Some even have memories of ridicule, criticism or hatred.Hidden wounds come from prejudices in society. They come from family members (they are the ones that hurt the most). Sometimes they come from parents, our children, our siblings, and aunts and uncles. You can get wounded in the work place. They’re everywhere.
I’ve been a pastor for a long time and I’ve talked to people and I’ve learned two truths about life.
- Everyone has a hidden wound. You may be masking it but everybody has a hidden wound. An emotional scar from someone in the past who hurt you in a serious way.
- Hidden Wounds (emotional scars) take longer to heal than physical wounds.
I am Jehovah Rapha,” which means “I am the God who heals.The Bible says this in Psalm 147:
God heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.How does He do that?
Healing Begins When Secrecy Ends
The last person you should be dishonest with is yourself. You’re never going to get well until you face your feelings straight on. Psalm 39 talks about the problem of suppressing your feelings. It says:I kept very quiet but I became even more upset. I became very angry inside, and as I thought about it, my anger burned. Psalm 39: 2-3The author’s saying how holding on to hurts is like carrying hot coals in your heart – you’re the one who gets burned. Hidden wounds, when you try to suppress them, don’t heal. They feaster. Pushing a hurt aside doesn’t get rid of it. It just makes it worse.
Are You Ready to Be Healed?
If you said yes, then be honest about your pain, your fear, your anger, and your resentment and bitterness over what people did to you. You start by revealing your hurts to three different people:- Be honest with yourself. You have to own up to “This hurts! I’m ashamed of this or I still hurt over this.”
- Be honest to God. You say, “God, this is how I feel!” and you vent, let it all out. God can handle that. He already knows how you hurt because He saw it when you were hurt. God’s not surprised when you’re honest about the pain and shame in your life. He already knows, cares, and loves you.
- Be honest with your accountability partner. There’s something healing about revealing your feeling to someone you trust. When you suppress it, you’re only hurting yourself. You’re never going to get well until you reveal your hurts.
You will never be better than the people you meet, the books you read, and the places you go. Many years ago, I heard this statement and have never forgotten it.
Joseph Mattera is in demand
internationally as a speaker and consultant : His mission is to
influence leaders who influence nations : to order one of his four
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www.josephmattera.org
Carey Nieuwhof is Lead
Pastor of Connexus Church north of Toronto, Canada, blogs at
www.careynieuwhof.com and is host of The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership
Podcast available for free on iTunes. 
Greg Stier is the President
and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries, which is mobilizing teenagers
across America to share their faith. 
LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS – May 29, 2015)
-- English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist
and author, Francis Bacon, who served both as Attorney General and Lord
Chancellor of England, once said, “Knowledge is power,” and this means
that when you know about a situation, we can then join millions around
the world to pray about it.
Would
you take a few minutes to let your friends know that we provide a free
news service to anyone who wishes to have this knowledge, so they can
pray for these great heroes of the faith, like Asia Bibi, a 50-year-old
Pakistani Christian mother-of-five who is languishing on death row for
simply standing up for Jesus, and Pastor Saeed Abedini, the joint
US-Iranian citizen, who is serving eight years in a violent Iranian
prison for being a Christian.
my
way of thanking you for your help, I would like you to know that if you
are able to get some 20 people, or more, to sign up, just let me know
and I’ll be glad to send you a signed copy of my autobiography, “From
Tabloid to Truth,” which carries a foreword by Brother Andrew, the
author of the best-seller, “God’s Smuggler.” And, don’t forget to
include your name and mailing address wherever it may be in the world.
Jon Bloom is the Executive
Director for Desiring God Ministries 
Ron Edmondson is a pastor
and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping
established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry
think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years
business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner, and he's
been helping church grow vocationally for over 10 years.
Ed Stetzer is President of
LifeWay Research and LifeWay’s Missiologist in Residence. He has trained
pastors and church planters on five continents, holds two masters
degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and
books. Ed is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist
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council of Sermon Central and Christianity Today's Building Church
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