The First Step Towards Healing

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
I will bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
- Isaiah 61:3

This week we’re focusing on internalizing (or interiorizing) scripture - letting it shape the insides of us. The purpose of that process is to play a role in exactly what the prophet Isaiah promises that the Messiah would do: in the very places of our brokenness, that we would experience healing. So, instead of ashes we’d find beauty, instead of mourning we’d experience joy, and instead of despair we would be able to give praise.

Scripture is one of God’s crucial tools in accomplishing this process of reversing the curse, of flipping the script.

So today our spiritual work is to focus on one thing: where is the curse in our lives? Listen to your heart to figure out what is the sad, condemning sound track playing in the background of your life? Tomorrow we’ll work on figuring out the antidote, so to speak. But today we’ve got to diagnose the disease.

Today, do the hard work of getting acquainted with your ashes, with your mourning, with your despair - this is crucial to take the step (tomorrow) towards letting God’s word address those things directly. So today, work on these questions. And as you do so, ask God’s Spirit of Truth to guide you and to reveal things to you that need to be healed:

• What words were spoken to you that haunt you today? (like, “you’re so fat” or “you’ll never amount to anything” etc.)

• What mistakes have you made that you just keep thinking about every day? (like, not being there enough for a friend or some ‘terrible sin’ you committed, etc.)

• What negative mantras do you say to yourself often? (like, “I’m so dumb” or “I’m a bad daughter” etc.)