Being a guy who languished in depression for many years, I have learned that hurts do not heal in darkness. You can’t suppress, depress, or repress emotional pain. These are mechanisms that leave your problems in darkness. They are tools that help you get through today only. This is not at all what God wants for you. God does everything in the light not darkness. Healing occurs in the light. So, stop the suppressing, depressing, and repressing and start confessing…confession of hurts too powerful for you to heal in your own strength. Confession takes things to the light where God’s healing resides.
There is a powerful prayer recorded in Psalm 139:23&24 which emphasizes taking anxieties, hurts to the light. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” The great patriarch, David, described as “a man after God’s own heart”, desired for all “anxious thoughts” and “any offensive way” to be brought into the light of God, “the way everlasting.” His desire was to have no hurtful, dark thought languishing in darkness. Like King David, take everything to the light where healing occurs.
Paul the Apostle says this in another way in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything.” Does that mean to suppress, depress, or repress everything? Not at all! Once finished, you will see that 4:6 challenges us to take everything to the light, “in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Paul said to present, to confess, all things to God! “Do not be anxious about anything.” Take it all to the light.
There is another aspect that must be considered. James 5:16 says for us not only to take hurts to God but to humbly take them to the light that brothers and sisters bring. “Confess your sins (anxious thoughts, hurts, darkness, fears, doubts) to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Healing occurs when you are humble, transparent with the brethren.
I spent just shy of a year with a small number of men in ReGen. The desire of this group of men was to bring each and everything forward that was keeping you back from being God’s man and building Jesus-type relationships. Just when you thought you had your work completed, the idea of the last 3% left undone cut right through my being. I recognized that if I wanted to shine in the light, I had to confess some things that I thought were just too dark and private. Yet, I did it and my life changed. ReGen talks about “rigorous honesty”. Keep nothing back from God and don’t hold anything back from confidential, accountability partners. I will never be the same and neither will you. The prayers of righteous people are powerful and effective. Light shining at the deepest crevices of my life gave me the ability to understand and enjoy the abundant life.
Hey, to each and everyone of you, take it to the light.
Barnabas Man 