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| A Testimony of Healing [html] Sally’s Story by Lawana Atkins (This is a true story. The name is changed.)
Sally was 7 years old and she lived in a very happy neighborhood. There were lots of happy children and Sally had lots of friends. She loved her friends, she loved her life. But one terrible day all that changed. Her bright and happy world became very painful and ugly. On that terrible day Sally was forced by an older boy into a hiding place and he molested her. While this was happening, some of the neighborhood children saw it and ran to tell their parents what Sally was doing. Sally was stunned, just stunned. No one, not even her parents considered how horribly she was forced, hurt molested and, oh, so confused. They didn’t understand that she was shamefully violated and all her defenses had been shattered. No, she was shamed and told how dirty and nasty she was, then she was locked in her room because none of the family wanted to be near someone as shameful and dirty as she was. As she sat all alone in her room (not allowed to have dinner with the family, not even to have any dinner) she reasoned that she must be really, really bad. She must be really, really dirty. She wondered how she could be so bad that no one would even want to touch her. A tremendous change took place in her mind for now she believed that she was as dirty, shameful and despicable as everyone said she was. Of course these were all mean and terrible lies, but Sally believed them and they were reinforced every day by the way she was treated not only by her family but by the other children in the neighborhood. Somehow it seemed to Sally that everyone knew of her shame and so began her life of pain, suffering, and heartache. Soon Sally became very angry at all this and now she was not only feeling shameful and dirty, she was also feeling mad, and bitter, and hateful. No longer could Sally live from her heart, she lived totally out of her pain and hurts. As Sally grew older, she became very promiscuous. The pain of the severe rejection forced her to seek approval and touch in any place she could find it. Alcohol and drugs helped numb the pain a little bit. As a young adult, Sally accepted Jesus as her Savior and started going to church. She found some real friends and no longer had to live the promiscuous lifestyle. She no longer needed the alcohol and drugs. Now, even though her life was many times better than it was, Sally still found that she got angry a lot (sometimes at very little things). She thought that maybe, just maybe she could get married and have a happy life like other people she saw in the church. However, every time she even thought about it, there was that old feeling of being dirty, used, and shameful. You see Sally still believed those lies that were planted in her little child’s heart, that told her again and again, "You naughty girl, how could you ever be like other nice people, you’re dirty and shameful and no one wants to be near you." So Sally continued to go to church trying really hard to believe that she was accepted, but her walls of pain and rejection were just too tall and too thick to let anyone get very close. Then a wonderful thing happened for Sally. The Lord lead her to a ministry that offered something she had come to believe was impossible. She found someone who understood her pain and her shame and her rejection. They understood the vows she had made that no one would ever hurt her again. They even understood her anger. As her heart was touched with hope for the first time since that terrible day when she was 7 years old, tears began to flow and she was able to release her anger to the Lord. All that pent up anger she had carried for so many years just melted away as she chose to release it. For the Lord took it all into His own broken body. Then a most amazing thing happened as she remembered that painful, shameful, awful time when she sat in her room alone, confused and feeling so hurt and dirty. It was like she was there again feeling the intensity of it all once again, only this time Jesus was there with her and He came near to her and He not only touched her, He held her and told her the truth about herself. He told her that it wasn’t her fault. He told how much He valued her and how proud He was of her. All Sally could do was weep. All those terrible, damaging lies that she had believed all those years were swept away. As Jesus held her, she felt clean for the first time since that awful day. Jesus showed her the truth and set her free from the power of the lies she had so long believed. Jesus literally took the tremendous load of pain, fear and shame from Sally and set her free to be who He had created her to be.
I believe this is something that Jesus just loves to do, because the Bible tells us in John chapter 8 that "if we know the truth the truth will set us free" and "He who the Son sets free is free indeed." The prophet Isaiah gave us this picture of Jesus when he said, "He (God)has sent Me (Jesus) to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners." Now Jesus has left the hands-on ministry to us, His disciples. And He has made every provision we need to do all that He’s designed for us to do. Sally was brokenhearted, she was captive to the lies she believed and in many ways she was in darkness. The lies she believed may as well have been the truth, because they had the same impact. She was captive to her lies until Jesus brought truth to her heart. She could have talked about truth, studied truth, analyzed truth, even hungered for truth, but it was not until Jesus did the work in her heart that she was set free.
Many times we think we’ve received healing because we’ve understood truth, but that is not true. We are not healed until Jesus does a transforming work in our hearts. We know that is God’s job and He will not share that job with anyone else. It is His job to redeem all our broken places and it is our job to allow Him to do that so we may mature. He wants us to live from the hearts He’s given us, not from our hurts. If you are living from your hurts, please know that you can be free. This is not just Christian "psycho-babble". I understand if you think that, because there was a time when I too would have thought that. I’d heard so many claims of healing that I just discarded them as another person who wanted to be noticed and claim some kind of victory to impress people, but I have finally come to know that there is REAL HEALING, and, yes, it is possible for you to know it too. If you carry emotional pain, (anger, rejection, shame, guilt, fear, etc.) and are interested in knowing more about how to be set free, contact us at: 757.253.2270. WE CARE.
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