Wounds That Heal

 

“Examine me O LORD, and try me; test my inner being and my heart.” Psalm 26:2.

 

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.

 

One of the reasons I read and ponder the Scriptures every day is that I’m afraid not to. While that may seem pretty negative to some readers, I write it with joy in my heart – for I have learned how desperately I need Jesus Christ and His Word. While I dearly love koinonia with Christ in His Word, a dimension of that koinonia (intimate relationship), while I’m in this body, is the searching and refining work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of Christ.

 

More than once I’ve prayed from Psalm 119:176, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant…”

 

Consider the description of the Word of God in Hebrews 4:12, “living, active, piercing, judging.” Peter writes that we have been born again “through the living and enduring word of God,” (1 Peter 1:23). Is this what the Word of God looks like in our lives? Can we sense the piercing and judging and wounding and healing work of the Word within our hearts and the depths of our being?

 

Proverbs 28:26 tells us that, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool…” This is one reason why we are to, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). This is to be our way of life. This does not mean that we when we don’t have the answers that we look to the LORD, it means that we look to God all the time, not trusting in our own understanding, because “he who trusts in his own heart is a fool.”

 

I know what it is to be a fool, I’ve had lots of experience.

 

The chastisement and correction of God is painful, but the healing that comes with it has a peace and deep joy that is enduring. We simply cannot know ourselves, we cannot know our hearts and motives, our souls and minds are clouded by our historic separation from God, and even though we are being renewed in the image of Jesus Christ we still see through a glass darkly.

 

Francis Schaffer used to say that he read the Scriptures every day to renew and refresh his mind. That makes a lot of sense, our minds and hearts need constant cleansing and renewal, and we will not find that outside of God’s Word.

 

The longer I live with Jesus, I find the deeper the examination of the Holy Spirit goes and the more painful it can be. But I know this is an examination of love and grace and that it occurs in a relationship of blessed assurance – I belong to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ belongs to me. He suffered wounds because He loved me, and He wounds me because He loves me…and of course He heals me…the wounds that Christ inflicts are wounds that heal.