A Time to Heal

2024-11-13 Eccl WEDClick link to download audio

Ecc 3:3 says that there is “a time to heal”.  It takes time for injuries and wounds to heal.  I’m doing PT on my shoulder.  This takes time, and at first it’s very painful.  But I’m getting better and I can feel it.  I see others in there and they are getting better slowly but surely.

When you get wounded in life by another person, you wonder if you will ever get over it.  Life is short, but life is long enough to heal and get over your wounds.  You will heal if you rehabilitate.  But you have to know, going in, that it takes “time to heal”.

How do you heal over time?

Forget about it, Gen 27:41-45.  When Esau met Jacob 20 years after Jacob stole his blessing, Gen 33:4, he was over it.  Let it go.  When the pain subsides, it’s hard to remember the event that caused your pain. You can bring it back to memory but you no longer feel the pain.  Get on with life.

Consider what God’s doing, Gen 45:5. Joseph had many years to see God work in his life. In Gen 37:2, he was 17.  In Gen 41:46, he was 30.  In Gen 41:53, Egypt had 7 years of plenty.  Plus there had been 2 of years of famine by Gen 45:6.  That’s 22 years.  In Gen 50:20-21, Joseph he was fully over his slavery and time in prison.  Sometimes a terrible wound like this has God all over it.  But you’ll miss what God’s doing if you continue to stew over what happened to you.

Attend to the ministry, 2 Tim 4:11.  In Acts15:37-40 the contention was so sharp between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark, that they split up.  But they all continued in the ministry.  Some people get wounded and get out.  You won’t heal that way.  You’ll get bitter and you’ll stay bitter.  If you keep your mind on the ministry rather than the people who have hurt you in the ministry you will heal.  You can’t quit on church and God’s people just because church is where you got hurt by God’s people.

Quit talking about it, Prov 13:3. “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction”.  You can never get over it by continuing to talk about it.  Follow Jesus’s example in 1 Pet 2:23 and just keep quiet.  You don’t need to explain your side, or defend yourself, or run down the people who have hurt you.  You’ll never heal.

Conclusion: you have time to heal.  But time alone won’t heal you unless you at least do these four things.