Breaking the Bondage of Your Bruise

by Tad Lindley

In a normal infection, your immune system attacks the invading bacteria and kills them. Then it removes the damaged tissue and the dead bacteria. In a skin infection we see the aftermath of this as pus. Tuberculosis affects a body differently. When a person has untreated tuberculosis in their lungs, the greatest danger is not from the bacteria itself, but from the person’s own body. The immune system attempts to wall off the area around the bacteria, which results in a pocket of dead lung tissue inside the living lung. If left untreated these walled off areas increase and in about 50% of cases, cause the death of the infected person. Notice that it is not the bacteria that kills people, but the response of the body to the bacteria.

Hurt feelings are like TB

Unless you live in a place without people, you are likely to get bumped and bruised going through life. People will cheat you. They will lie to you. They will hurt your feelings, and they will betray you. Offenses like this are unavoidable. People are imperfect and they will sometimes let you down.

Building a wall around the bruise

Sometimes we get a bruise going through life that will not heal. It begins to fester. It begins to steal our joy. It may be a major event like being molested or abused, or it may be a minor event like the time somebody ripped us off for $25. We think about it when we are alone, rarely a night goes by that it does not cross our minds as we try to fall asleep. Just like the lung builds a wall around the TB bacteria instead of killing it and kicking it out, we begin to build a wall around our pain, and we become imprisoned by it. In fact if you are that person that got cheated out of $25, I could take my billfold and give you the $25 to cover it, and you would still be angry about what happened. You see it is no longer about the $25, you will have built a wall around it and become imprisoned by it.

The bruise builds a prison

When Jesus came to Nazareth to announce his ministry, he read some scriptures to the people. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised”. (Luke 4:18)

Notice that Jesus said, “To set at liberty them that are bruised”. Another word for liberty is freedom. This means that our past hurts and bruises can imprison us. It also means that we can be set free from the imprisonment of the past by Jesus Christ.

Breaking out of jail

The way to become free from the past is to forgive. Forgiveness is not easy, but it is essential. If you have ever prayed the Lord’s prayer, you have uttered the words, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us or forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:12). This literally means, Lord, please forgive me in the same way that I forgive other people, for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matthew 6:14-15).

But you don’t know how bad I was hurt

You may be thinking, “Brother Lindley, you don’t know what my ex-husband did to me,” or, “Brother Lindley, if you had my wife, you’d drink too.” The fact of the matter is that no matter how badly we have been betrayed, Jesus can still give us liberty from our bruise. I’m not trying to deny the fact of your past pain, what I am saying is that Jesus can deliver you from it. Here’s what I want you to do: 1) I want you to come to the Lord humbly in prayer and ask him to deliver you from the pain of the past, and 2) I want you to begin to ask Jesus to bless the people that hurt you. Your prayer might be something like this: Jesus help me, because the pain of this past experience is robbing my joy; I am a prisoner to it, and I want to be free. In your word you say that you came to set at liberty them that are bruised: that’s me. I’m asking today, Lord, that you would bless the person that hurt me, that you would bring them peace and material comfort. Even if you don’t mean it, ask the Lord to bless them. You will find in time that you begin to develop a freedom from the bondage of the bruise.

Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.

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