Be Healed
From The Message: When Little Faith Is Good
The word “inevitable” is often a disheartening one. It’s used to reference something that is out of your control, something that you cannot affect no matter how hard you try. There are likely many things in your life that you deem as inevitable. You may be shocked to realize that one of the prominent things Jesus calls inevitable is offense.
Often called “the bait of Satan”, we all know the deep seated effects of feeling offended. You wouldn’t be shocked to find out that offense isn’t simply emotional, it’s spiritual. Bitterness constricts you and prevents you from growing deeper in God. It breeds anger, which if left unchecked, can be turned inward and lead to depression. Hebrews 12:14-15 even says the we are defiled because of roots of bitterness in our hearts.
So if offense is inevitable and has deep spiritual effects on you, what are you supposed to do? Is this checkmate for your spiritual growth? I’m glad to say that offense is not the ending, but rather an opportunity, the caveat is that you must go about it the right way. The temptation is to go for the “low hanging fruit” and simply cope rather than heal. This is why many people have the facade of a perfect life, while masking their pain with work, addictions, and distractions.
The correct way to heal is less easy, but much more rewarding- it takes forgiveness and faith. Forgiveness is the only way in which we can actually uproot bitterness rather than just pruning at some branches. Distractions may heal for a moment, but only faith will heal for a lifetime. The issue is we’re not called to a small forgiveness, but rather a Christlike forgiveness. Jesus makes it clear that we must forgive so much and so often that we lose count. True forgiveness isn’t a moment, it’s a lifestyle, it’s continual. To forgive in this way requires faith, we cannot do it in our own strength.
In Luke chapter 14, Jesus references a sycamore tree. These trees notoriously have deep, complex, massive root systems beneath them. It’s virtually impossible to uproot a sycamore tree without heavy machinery. These trees are used to symbolize offense’s deep-seated effects on the human soul. Jesus boldly declares something that should bring hope to every heart struggling with bitterness- all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed to uproot and cast away a daunting sycamore tree. The average sycamore is around 30,000 times larger than a mustard seed, but it doesn’t matter how deep your wounds are. It doesn’t matter that pain feels inevitable. All it takes is a little bit of faith to forgive and be healed.
• We are defiled by our bitterness, we cannot hold onto it and grow in God
• Coping heals for a moment, forgiveness heals for a lifetime
• We’re called to forgive and keep forgiving, we cannot do this without faith
• It only takes a little bit of faith to forgive and be healed
