Session Ten


Scabs, Scars, Success


Romans 12:2: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

In regard to renewing the mind, we have had many opportunities during this study to forgive everyone who has caused us harm during our lifetime. This is a giant step in the process of renewal. Now it is time to see how well we have done in the area of forgiveness.

Perhaps we have been told that unless we are able to forget, we really haven't forgiven, but that is simply untrue.

For example, everyone probably has scars that have healed. We all have scars we can point to. We experienced some sort of physical mishap, which caused an abrasion in our skin. It probably bled for a while, and then it scabbed over. Finally, it healed.

After it healed, it became a scar. Now, as we relive that experience, we can still remember it well, but we do not feel any of the hurt. We can remember it and point to it, but we no longer feel the pain.

Is such a thing possible emotionally as well as physically? Is it possible that we might be able to remember a past hurt, yet not feel the hurt in the present? It is time for us to understand that although we have been hurt inside, and we have suffered because of the emotional things that have happened to us, it isn't necessary for us to forget those things. Forgetting is not necessarily a part of the healing process.

As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ would have us not forget those things. He wants to heal our hurts and let them become scars, which we can point to for His glory. There is nothing wrong in having a scar. As a matter of fact, a scar can be a plus. We need to get beyond the scars and begin thinking about how Jesus is going to lead us from this point onward. We can look at the incidents in our lives that hurt us, allow Jesus to heal the hurts, then use those incidents to His glory.
It is important for us to discover our purpose in life. It may never have occurred to us that one of the purposes in our lives is to utilize the scars in our lives to His glory. Imagine what it would be like to be able to point to an emotional scar and tell a hurting person, I know what you are going through, because I have experienced that hurt. That happened to me also.

But look here, it has healed. I can tell you the details, I can tell you everything that happened, I can remember word for word what happened. But you see, I don't feel the pain any more, because it is healed. God healed it in me; therefore, He can heal it in you."

Every one of us has at least one incident, and some of us have many incidents in our lives, which have been traumatic to us. We now have a choice while we are in this program. Our choice is, if our hurt has not been healed yet, what are we going to do about it?

There is one sure way in which we can tell whether or not we have forgiven someone: When we talk about it, when we share it, are we picking at a scab, or are we pointing at a scar? We can pick at the scab, and it will never heal. We can continue to pick at the scab, and continue, and continue, and it will continue to bleed, and continue to hurt, and continue to fester, and continue to poison us.

We may even deliberately pick at it to make it bleed some more. We may even want to feel the pain again. It may have become a way for us to manipulate others, or to receive sympathy from someone.

The alternative is to give the hurt to God and allow Him to heal it. We can let it become a scar, so we will be able to point to it, and say, God healed this. I know what you're going through, I went through the same thing. But God healed it. Let me tell you about it, because He can heal you, too."

It becomes obvious that we have to begin to think beyond where we are this moment. We have to think beyond the suffering we may be feeling right now. We can get ourselves beyond that, because God has another purpose for us.

Do we realize how unique we are? We may not feel very unique, but stop to think a moment. How many people are embroiled in drugs and alcohol in the world? Certainly, millions of people are victims of addiction. And how many people have been exposed to secular programs where they have been taught why they became addicts? Probably hundreds of thousands. They came away from those programs able to say, "O.K., now I know why I drink, but they continued to drink and drug.

That is not the case with us. We are in an entirely different type of program. Those millions of addicts are not exposed to this program, but we are. That makes us unique. In this program, we discover there is a Divine purpose for us being where we are.

When God breathed life into us, He didn't do it because He thought it would be nice and cute for us to be born. He has a Divine purpose for our lives. But we will not realize what it is, we will not realize that successful walk with God, until we get beyond our scabs.

We have to move into a scar status in order to reach the fulfillment of God's plan, because the scabs will stand in our way to God's purpose. The reason is that the scabs will always influence our responses and our reactions to everything that occurs in our lives. So long as our wounds are still bleeding, so long as we are still picking at them, subconsciously they have an effect upon our response to everything that is said to us. Every situation that occurs in our lives will be filtered through our emotional scabs, until those scabs have been healed.

Let's think for a moment. What would we look like if we had only scabs and no scars? And suppose every day we would keep knocking or picking those scabs loose, and we would be bleeding all over everything? Wouldn't that be a mess?

Now, let's look at it through the eyes of God. Imagine how we look in God's eyes when we refuse to receive His healing power for our emotional hurts. All that internal bleeding, an absolute mess inside, because we insist upon picking at the emotional scabs!

How does God feel about that type of rebellion against His love? There He stands, with outstretched arms, ready to heal us, but we turn our backs on Him. Instead, we go into a corner and pick at our emotional scabs and cry ourselves to sleep. Is that how we want to spend the rest of our lives, as scab pickers, instead of being able to point at scars? The reality is that those of us who refuse to forgive, are scab pickers.

So we are faced with a decision. Jesus Christ always works on the basis of our will, not our emotions. He always brings us to a point of choice. Now he has led us to the point of having to make a decision concerning what we are going to do about certain situations in our lives. That decision cannot be based upon our emotions.

He has brought us to that point, right now, concerning the things we have been picking at and allowing to bleed. He is saying to us, "I am ready to make scars out of those wounds, how about you? Are you willing to receive My healing, or would you rather continue to walk around and pick at the scabs?"

If we decide to continue to pick at the scabs, what we are actually saying is, "I'm going to continue on the program I have always been on, centering on my own navel. I'm going to concentrate upon myself and all the things that have happened to me. I'm going to focus upon that, and have my own pity party. I refuse to allow You to heal me, Jesus." That is a form of rebellion in God's eyes, but He gives us the free choice.

He will always give us the choice. What we need to see clearly is that our decision cannot be based upon our emotions. It is solely our decision to say, "Jesus, I know You can heal; therefore, I'm going to allow You to heal me." We lay the wounds at His feet, and we give Him an opportunity to heal them. After that, we can start thinking in terms of our successful walk with Him.

Most of us who enter a rehabilitation program are centered upon ourselves. Our idea of success is to become drug free. Our thought is, "If I can attain being clean and sober in this program and if I can hang onto that, I'll be successful."

That is all right in the beginning, but we really need to begin thinking in the next dimension. There is no sense in attempting to stay drug free, until we get rid of our scabs. We will never attain true success so long as we are still bleeding.

We must understand that we are in charge of what we do with our lives We can release control of our lives to somebody else, but we cant release responsibility for our lives to anybody. Many of us have released control of our lives to other people and to circumstances in which we have found ourselves. But we haven't been able to release responsibility, because that is impossible. Our responsibility for our lives still rests with us.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "You are no one's victim without your permission." That wasn't true when we were children, but it is true now. We no longer have to be the victims we were as children, unless we give those wounds permission, unless we insist upon picking at the scabs.

One thing for certain, we are never going to have public success until we have private success. We must have success within our lives before we can have success out in life. The only way to overcome the world is to overcome the world in us. And the only way to overcome the world in us is through Jesus Christ, who said, I have overcome the world!" So, we are constantly brought back to Jesus, who is our High Priest.

Hebrews 3:1: "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. " It is time for us to begin to look to Jesus as our High Priest. It is necessary for us to see Him in this role in order accomplish our healing.

Hebrews 8:1-3: Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a High Priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. For every High Priest appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this High Priest also have something to offer."

Every High Priest must have something to offer. Obviously, Jesus does not have to keep offering His blood over and over again. Once was enough. So, what does He have to offer now? He has the sacrifices we take to Him. He is standing, as our High Priest, with His hands outstretched, waiting for each of us to come to Him and lay in His hands those things over which we are willing to give Him control in our lives.

If we have certain personality characteristics which are not good, we can lay those in His hands. Our High Priest has His all-consuming fire going constantly, day and night, 24 hours per day. And what is most important, he is also ready to take our scabs from us. He is ready to take them from us and heal them with His all-consuming fire. A wound that is sealed by fire is cauterized. That is, it is sealed by intense heat. He is ready to cauterize our wounds and leave us scars as evidence of our healing.

If we want to step from scab to scar to success, now is the time. So, let's take five minutes, right now, to write down those areas inside us that need to be healed. We will ask the Holy Spirit for revelation and trust Him to reveal the wounds within us that are still bleeding. We will ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us those whom we have never really forgiven.

It is not that these people deserve to be forgiven. We are forgiving out of obedience to God's command, trusting that He will set us free from the emotional pains. We will ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us those attitudes and characteristics and thought patterns which are not pleasing to Him. This is our opportunity to have a moment of truth with our Lord.

(TAKE FIVE MINUTES TO PRAY AND RECORD EVERYTHING THE HOLY SPIRIT BRINGS TO THE SURFACE TO BE HEALED)

Now, let's visualize Jesus Christ as our High Priest. That doesn't mean we have to see Jesus Christ in our minds. We just need to visualize Him as being our High Priest in the holy of holies in heaven. He said we could come into the throne room with boldness, so He expects us to do that. He wants us to get beyond the scab, into the scar, and on to success with Him. Our ultimate goal should be to fulfill God's purpose for our lives, regardless of what it might be. That is true success.


GROUP EXERCISE:

If possible, divide into groups of three persons each. Arrange chairs so they are facing each other.

This is important. Do not pray "for" each other. Instead, two of you support the third person as he takes his scabs to the Lord. Simply be beside him as he prays for himself, and lend him your support.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PERSON WHO PRAYS:

Go into the presence of Jesus and confess to Him that you have the scabs you have written down. Then visualize yourself giving those scabs to Jesus. Ask Him to heal those areas of your life. Picture Jesus taking those scabs from you. Identify them specifically, whether they are people, or circumstances, or attitudes, etc. Be specific.

You are releasing those specific scabs to Jesus, your High Priest. You are asking Him to heal them, to cauterize them, to seal them with His all-consuming fire. He will take those things from you and let them become scars in your life. You will then be able to point to them as being healed. In this fashion, God will be glorified.

The other two members of the group are to support that one as he is taking his scabs to Jesus. Do not interfere with him, or pray for him, just support him quietly. You are giving him spiritual strength. That is ministry.

Repeat this process until everyone in the group has had an opportunity to release his wounds to the Lord.

REMEMBER: PART OF THE PROCESS OF HAVING OUR WOUNDS HEALED IS FORGIVING THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE HURT US!



HOMEWORK: Record what the Lord accomplished while you were in your group
Session Ten . . . Scabs, Scars, Success

Personal and Group Exercise (see page 115)


1. Why is it unnecessary for us to forget in order to forgive?






2. Why is the act of forgiving a necessary part of healing?






3. Why are scars positive rather than negative?






4. In what way is refusing God's healing a form of rebellion?






5. Why is it important for us to accept Jesus as our High Priest?





6. What is true success in life?


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