Silver Health Home

When Life isn’t working, what now?

Maybe you have the kind of life about which most of us can only dream. You have money, prestige, a going business and a good family, in the eyes of the world. Somewhere during your childhood you realized everything was not so good. Numerous occasions you were exposed to violence in the home, a father who could not restrain his temper, a mother who sought other solutions to fill the emptiness in her heart. Life wasn’t working and is still not working. When you became the punching bag, it was sometimes necessary to get away to a place where you could feel safe. You know how it feels to be rejected and alone. Maybe you searched for an escape through pornography, unhealthy relationships, alcohol, drugs, sex or anger.

You may have also asked the following questions, the same questions I would have asked in such a situation: Why me? Why would God allow all of this to happen to me? Have I been so bad that I should be punished in this way?

Louie Anderson wrote “We never really say it hurts… really hurts, and so we spend the rest of our lives trying to make up for it, holding on tightly to things that we should really let go of”

Maybe you are in despair; maybe you need a new story, a story larger than this pain.

One thing is constant – you have a choice. Life can work for you if you are willing to forgive and take responsibility for your life. You can’t change the fact that bad things happened, but you can choose your attitude. You are a conqueror, an overcomer, you are not a loser! You need to change your mindset. Your future is bright if you take hold of God’s healing grace.

In Love beyond Reason John Ortberg, gives a clear description of what God’s grace has done:

“This is grace for everyone who’s ever despaired over sin. This is the removal of our mountain of moral indebtedness. If you’ve ever felt that a gap between reality and who you’re called to be, ever felt like you can’t close it – this is grace for you. God took our indebtedness and guilt and nailed it to the cross. He erased the bill, destroyed the IOU, so you are free. Unburdened. Cleansed. You can live with a heart as light as a feather. Today-no matter what you did yesterday. This is the wonder of grace.”

What is grace?

Grace is a free gift from God through Christ which results in a major healing of sin, of every bit of pain from your past, a washing away of hurts and rejection.

Take a few minutes until you grasp and believe these words.

Ephesians 1:4-5 “Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own, Through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault – we who stand before him covered with his love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to!” (NLT)

We are dependent on the grace of God to transform us once we are able to receive and embrace it. Grace is a lifeline to the drowning, it’s oxygen to the suffocating, its life support to the dying, its hope for the hopeless, and it’s salvation for the broken and lost.

Abide in Christ, the way John McCarthy describes a breakthrough in his life:

“Abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power; trusting Him to subdue all inward corruption; resting in the love of an Almighty Savior, in the conscious joy of a complete salvation, a salvation from all sin (this is His Word); willing that His will should truly be supreme – this is not new, and yet ‘tis new to me. I feel as though the first dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust. I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a sea which is boundless; to have sipped only, but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy. May He lead us into the realization of His unfathomable fullness.”

When life happens, your heart is broken, it hurts, and you are tired of focusing on your failures and on the ways others have failed you, and when times are difficult, God carries you by His grace.  He unconditionally loves you. He has identified with you and has suffered from rejection too. He felt fear and temptation. He experienced the loss of friends, family and support. The Bible says, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15)

 Abide in Him, walk closely with Him, do the things He says and you will think differently, live differently, even pray with greater authority and you will experience love, joy and constant friendship.

Take a journey to those places where you felt safe, and to the home where you realized life was’nt beautiful.  Take picture and face your emotions, using Phototherapy.

Dr. H. Norman Wright &Larry Renetzky Healing Grace for Hurting People (Gospel Light Ventura, California, USA, 2007)

John Ortberg, Love Beyond Reason (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1977)

Philip Carlson, You were made for Love (Kingsway Communications, Eastbourne, England, 2006)

Steve Brown, When Your Rope Breaks (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998)

V. Raymond Edman, They Found the Secret (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 19