Letting God Into Our Dark Places: What’s Living in Your House?
If I could draw them, they might look like heavy suitcases. They feel like weights. I’m not sure what’s in all of them, but I know they’re there.
So what is the fear in letting them go? Maybe it’s that I don’t know where I’d let them go to. It doesn’t seem like they’ll float away into space. They’re like dead body parts living in my house, and I want to be free, now and always.
We get tempted to think we must keep all accounts of a negative past and add them to the collection. We get tempted to think they are part of us, that they define us and that they’re our life.
They are not.
Jesus Goes Into the Dark Places with Us
Once a man named Jairus asked Jesus to come to his home because his 12-year-old daughter was dying. Before they could get there, a messenger arrived with devastating news: It was no use; the girl had already died. Jesus told Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith, and she will be healed.” (Luke 8:50)
When Jesus arrived at the house, he wouldn’t let anyone go in with Him except Peter, John and James and the girl’s parents. He told the weepers and wailers to exit. He told the child to get up, and her life returned.
This made me think about the times we come to Jesus with a request for healing.
We may think there are some memories too dark/long ago/packed away for Jesus to find. We may feel like we’re too far down a wrong path and that Jesus wouldn’t go there. We might actually look for help, but them someone runs up with the big news that there’s no hope.
So what’s living in us that tells us these lies?
Jesus says to have faith and be healed. Like Jairus, we must ask Him to come to our house. We must tell the wailers, weepers, guilt keepers and naysayers to exit. We need more of Him and less of us. It’s time to get up; for He has given us new life.
Jesus raises the dead.