Wholeness
- chronybe16
- Jun 29, 2018
- 6 min read
Can I still become whole when I have self-inflicted pain? Can I still become whole despite a bad decision I made in life? I was in a dark place a few months back when I tried to answer these questions. I found that the wholeness I was seeking was found through a loving relationship with God. With God we are complete. The fruits of his spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is nothing broken in God. Wholeness is God’s design for our lives.
Wholeness is a process. There’s levels to wholeness and always room for progress. The first step to wholeness is forgiveness. Forgiveness from God and forgiveness for yourself. We replay failures in our mind and create a prison that was never meant to keep us. Instead, the failures of life should be turned inside out; there’s lessons that can be learned and opportunities to grow. The road to wholeness requires changing our posture, perspective, and position. Don’t let bad decisions define your life. You are not a product of your mistakes, make the choice to not be defined by your past. Failure is not final or fatal. “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” (Psalm 37:23-24 / NLT)
Take your time and embrace wholeness. Even in wholeness what is meant to be can’t be blocked or stopped...just relax and stop trying to force things. Don’t push too hard, only push to level that wholeness allows, take your time and focus on yourself.
Think about a slingshot, sometimes life pulls you back in order to be propelled forward. There’s still greater for you, forget the mistakes, hurdles, and disappointments. The good, bad, and ugly is all needed to fulfill your God given assignment. There’s going to be storms in life but God wants to change who you are in it. I was listening to Toure Roberts and he talked about three things that are necessary for our lives to be changed by God:
Surrendering everything to God (our dreams, desires, hurts, worries, past experiences, mistakes, habits, dark places, secrets, perspective, and values)
Having a hunger for God and his spirit which makes us whole
Having the belief that wholeness is available to you
The consequence of sin is death. Jesus was crucified and resurrected to disrupt this phenomenon. Before this significant moment, death was guaranteed. Because of Jesus, even when we fall (sin) or make mistakes there is access to the Father and his love (life). Death is no longer guaranteed and it has no power when we turn to God from our broken places. Love, life, and wholeness is given to us when we turn to the Father. Through Jesus, life and love is guaranteed. Your sins are only a product of your decisions, don’t yield to temptation. Thoughts of brokenness, sin, remorse, guilt, shame, condemnation are not of God, you are already forgiven. God doesn’t condemn us; he uses conviction to bring us back to him. We should never feel that we are unworthy to come back to him. What Jesus did for us on the cross is greater than any sin. All things are are still possible. “The Heavenly Father is a good and loving Father who desires the best for his children. Even when life seems unfair God’s goodness is unchanged. He continues to love you and fight for you.”
We become intimidated by freedom when we allow brokenness to linger and fester in our lives. We rather be comfortable in our brokenness, the idea of wholeness is pleasant but we refuse to take steps towards it. In addition, we refuse to offer our brokenness and damaged areas to God. Brokenness inhibits our transparency with God, he can only bless and help us when we are authentic and honest with him. “If you don’t acknowledge your damaged areas and give it to God it will become your excuse of why you cannot reach purpose.” Your brokenness is a repellent to purpose and growth for your life.
There’s beauty and glory in your cracks. Will Grandberry brought up vital points about having the right perspective in life: “We have to change the way we look at things and things we look at will change. When you have the wrong perspective you never can see opportunities. You get stuck in opposition and can never see a God thing in a bad thing.” For the past couple of months I’ve had a cracked screen on my phone. I hated to bring it out in front of people because I didn’t want to hear them say something about it. A few weeks ago I was talking to one of my students about my phone and I ended up showing her the cracks and damage to it. To my surprise she showed me her phone which also had cracks. I was taken back when she talked about the beauty of the cracks and its aesthetics. This moment made me realize the power of perspective. We look at our brokenness as a burden when in reality it's an opportunity for us to experience God’s wholeness. “God’s wholeness is pursuing my brokenness. Stop wallowing in your pity when God is trying to get you to embrace your pain. God is a perfect spotter (helping you bare the weight of life’s disappointments).” You can’t appreciate wholeness unless you know what it feels like to be broken. Michael Eric Dyson made a statement in an interview that resonated with me, “There will be no celebration without suffering, there can be no joy without sorrow, there can be no redemption without the persecution that comes before it.” God wants to restore you and put you back together again.
As a society, I think it’s interesting how we are still broken and enter relationships. In other instances it’s vice versa, we may be whole but choose a significant other who is broken. It’s a selfish act and creates cycles. We ignore signs of brokenness and fall in love with the thought of being in a relationship. I think it’s important to ask yourself, “What good am I to my significant other if I’m broken? What good is my significant other to me if they are broken?” It’s ok to take time away from the opposite sex and become whole. Your relationships will be better once you are whole and work through your issues. Take your time and embrace wholeness. We worry about missing out on the right one but fail to remember that whatever is meant to be can’t be blocked or stopped. Just relax and stop trying to force things and focus on yourself. This act is not selfish and breaks cycles. Furthermore, we forget that wholeness brings us closer to the source (God) and he is the restorer of time (Joel 2:25). The time it takes for you to become whole is necessary in order to live out your full potential and purpose.
Wholeness is a decision. Aren’t you tired of being broken? Aren’t you tired of the same cycles? Aren’t you tired of looking for validation from people and things? We have to identify the cause for our brokenness, it could be because of a bad decision we made or others made that affected us. We then have to make a new decision not based on brokenness but based on purpose. This new decision takes steps toward wholeness where true freedom can only be found. It’s your decision to be whole, choose wisely. Don’t let the holes of life keep you from becoming whole.
In order to be whole we must speak the word of God over our lives. We must declare what God has promised us through his word. There’s power in the words we speak (Proverbs 18:21). “The word of God only starts moving when you release it.” I challenge you for the next 10 days to speak and meditate on the following scriptures of restoration and wholeness:
Jeremiah 30:17 - “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’declares the Lord,”
Isaiah 61:7 - “Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.”
Joel 2:25 - “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm”
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