Jacob wounded by God
God sometimes doesn't appear to fight fair... But sometimes we need to be wounded physically so we can wrestle with him spiritually.
Why does God allow things in our life that we can't fix? That talk directly to our hurts? Is He a good God?
Deuteronomy 32:? "I wound and I heal"
He allows evil things to occur for redemptive and good purposes. As we're sitting in the reality of the wound, we may not be able to understand the why. But we can rely on the purpose and intent of God.
Wounds reveal who God is, and who we are.
May be shame for what we've done. Or shame for what things have been done to us. Shame has a power to name us. But God has named us and predestined us, well before this shame occurred. He has a power to restore and rename us.
"I did ___ because ___" is a fallacy. It assumes we were perfect until that event occurred. We are sinners. We would've found something else to sin on. The wounds open up an reveal our propensity for sin.
We choose to address our sin by fighting it constantly.... when God wants us to stop fighting and, instead, start trusting Him. He wants us to entrust it to Him so he can heal it.
Our wounds have scars, but just like in surgery, there's something underneath the scars that is a big game changer and makes the difference. God wants us to entrust our wounds to him and allow him to change us inside, underneath the scars.
What you have meant for evil, God has used for good.
Wounds allow us to trust a God that comes near enough to wound, and nearer enough to heal. Our physical and emotional wounds are there to allow us to heal spiritually.
Our wounds that we've allowed God to heal also allows us to become wounded healers for others.
(from Rick Mckinley's sermon, Imago Dei Community 11/6/11)
Created 7 months ago
