Inner Healing Through Forgiveness (3)

My friend Laura (is not her real name) has been through a tough divorce and due to the influence of her husband who told her that she is ugly and worthless, and consequently left her for another woman, she was deeply hurt. Added to all that was all the pain she has suffered in her childhood and teenage years because of her father who was an alcoholic and you can imagine all the other consequences along that path: rejection, physical abuse and all the shame that comes along.
All these led to a severe condition – a severe form of arthritis to the point that she could hardly move her hands, she seemed "blocked", physically blocked because of this illness. She lost so much weight to the point of becoming anorexic.

During a prayer meeting, she was told by the pastor that in order to be free of all this pain inside, she has to forgive her husband and her father. At first, she thought she couldn’t possibly do that. However, she made the decision and she said:"I almost couldn’t say the words "I forgive my father" but she eventually did. Then she confessed that she felt like chains falling off of her, she felt so free!
As a consequence, her physical condition improved and today she doesn’t have arthritis anymore!

The next step to inner healing is to make a list of all of those who hurt you in a way or another and start praying for each of them, telling God that you choose to forgive them.

Simply reminding yourself of what you’ve been through might be a very painful process, yet God only wants to bring it out not to hurt your feelings, but to take the pain out of those memories. Erasing your memory would not be profitable (even if God could do that) because you’d lose all the good lessons too, but simply taking the pain out of those memories and restore what your enemy stole from you is the greatest blessing we can all receive.

To do the list, it might be useful to think back from this day or to begin with your earliest memories and start forgiving all the people who one way or the other might have hurt you. Keep in mind that they were not exactly inspired by God’s Holy Ghost to hurt you…keep in mind that it is our enemy Satan who wants to rob us of our joy, love and confidence.

The first on the list should be your parents. Even if you were a loved baby and your parents looked forward to your coming in their family, still, your parents have been far from being perfect. They inherited the consequences of their own parents’ lack of knowledge, which, in their turn inherited from the previous generation and so on.

Even if you have never met your parents, who might have been abandoned you in an orphanage, the fact that you are in this world is a clear intention of God wanting you here, even if the circumstances were unhappy. Yes, you also need to forgive your parents for having abandoned you, for having rejected you. You have Heavenly Father Who receives you with open arms, just the way you are! God is your real Father!

Those times in early childhood when colleagues might have called you names or reject you from their group for various reasons you might not even realize but they have contributed to the rejection feeling you suffer from to this day.

The list might be long; you might not remember everything in a day or two. There might be consequences that you have to deal with on daily bases, they might have deep layers that will come to your mind step by step and you’ll have to say "Father I forgive them" over and over again. Yet, at the end of the process, the freedom you’ll have inside and the healing God will bring by restoring all those areas where you’ve been hurt, will free you to experience REAL love, TRUE GOD’s love for you.
How do deal with those who have stolen parts of your life (reputation, sexuality, time, health) is the theme of the next article from this series.