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"It takes time for victim thinking to be rooted out when past abuses have made that kind of thinking the key to survival itself."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 127.
It is of no doubt that we all have been through a lot. Many of us can point to situations in our past that have left deep and unseen scars. Most of us have gotten pretty good at coping with the feelings that come up from time to time as result of those past hurts. What we fail to realize is that coping isn't what God ever intended for us in this world. He made us to shine in a way that makes us an even more powerful part of God's plan to bring all creation to Him.
We can get so caught up in the rat race of life that time is our enemy. We have no time to let the healing touch of our God come into our lives. We all want the quick answers. A quick prayer, a good sermon, a well written book, heck even a pill will suffice. But let time do its magic in my life - no thanks - I don't have the time to spare.
Patience isn't a virtue that is so virtuous in this world. I literally hate the word patience. It sums up for me all that I have been taught that represents failure. Waiting for something to happen is just weakness as far as I am concerned. Doesn't this world tell us that we have to make things happen - we have to grab for all the gusto we can or we will be seen as worthless and a failure in the world's eyes.
Here's what I have found in my journey fighting patience - my way doesn't work to the extent that I need in order for the kinds of healing from the past I need to be set free. Making healing work in my life isn't something I can do for long periods of time. Sure, my concerted efforts towards healing will yield some positive results but that's not what I need. I need lasting results. That only comes as I learn to wait on the Lord.
Check out today's Bible reading as it deals with the subject of God's healing in our lives.
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14 (NIV)
Be still. That's such a difficult command to let happen in my life. I want to be in constant motion - how about you? There is so much to be done. There is so much progress that needs to be made. I don't have time to be still, or do I?
I want God to fight for me. I want His power to be the impetus for change in my life. Problem is that I can't make it happen and that makes me feel like a looser. Remaining in a place of loss is where victim thinking really takes hold.
It isn't that God is making us wait so that we will feel like we are worthless. It is that He needs us to learn that dependence on Him is the only course of action we can trust in in this world. We can't rely on our abilities, our training, our character traits or our work ethic to make His plans come into clarity. It is only though that stillness in our life that we will be able to hear that quiet, still voice of His - a voice that brings with it the healing of our past in ways nothing else in this world can possible match.
God is in no way saying that we are just to pull the plug on everything we have going on in life. We aren't necessarily suppose to just abandon this life and go sit on a mountain top for the rest of our lives. He has things we are to do. Most of them you are actually doing right now. This isn't a message of change of activities, it is a message promoting change of perspective.
Your day today is going to be much has it has been for the last countless days in this life. Some good things are going to happen as well as some bad. I believe that we are to carve out time to be still and get God's perspective from time to time this day. Let His words of wisdom, power and healing speak over you so that you can be set free of the past for the glorious future promised you, the victor God has made you to be.
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