Good On The Outside, Broken On The Inside

I like to read marquees on church signs whenever I go on trips or riding around town doing errands. The messages on these marquees are always encouraging with really nice sayings such as: “Jesus takes returns, return to Jesus.” Or “Come and love God with us!”

Today while reading one of these messages a thought came to mind, “those are very nice marquee slogans representing the building from the outside, but what is really going on inside of the church building?” Will I be welcomed there, is there really life in this place? Then another thought came to mind. People of all ages are invited to come into the Kingdom of God. Jesus says “come as you are, broken and all, I will heal you!” Many accept the invitation, but forget about the healing part! Once in the Kingdom many Believers are great at appearing to look good outwardly, but are really broken on the inside. We come with all of our brokenness, but unfortunately, we have problems trusting God to heal us from our brokenness.

For the past six months I have been ministering with an elderly woman who presents herself as a wonderful woman of God. Once you begin talking with her you soon discover her brokenness. She appears good on the outside but is carrying 50 years of brokenness from her childhood of abuse, unforgiving offenses, and full of negativity and bitterness. She actual appears to be in mourning over her past hurts; and she has offended her family with her brokenness and chased them away with her words of hurt and negatively!

God wants us to trust Him by surrendering our hurts, that are causing us to mourn, one-by-one. The Psalmist tells us in Psalms 147:3 that God is “the healer of the broken in heart, and He bindeth up their wounds.”

We don’t have to live in emotional pain everyday mourning in our hearts and minds past hurts and wounds. God cares very much about our well-being and wants us to live a joyfilled life. He wants us to take off our emotional “grave clothes!”

Forgiving those who have wounded us doesn’t make them guiltless or free. Forgiveness releases us from our offender keeping us in emotional bondage or emotional death. God sent Jesus to the Cross so we could be set free from the prisons of our minds and brokenness in our hearts. Satan wants to keep us emotional bound and blaming God for the horrific pain he has caused us.

Friends, God wants to heal our broken heart and bind up our wounds, but He can’t as long as we continue to make the choice of not trusting God with our emotional wounds. Don’t become like the woman carrying 50 years of hurt and pain, offending others because she refuses to surrender them to God. Let Jesus give you the “oil of joy for your mourning” (Isaiah 61:3). He will heal us and comfort us so we can live the joy-filled, abundant life He has planned for us. Let your healing begin today, allow Father God to heal you both inside and outside, you deserve it!