Laura Bennet – Author

When we’ve been hurt, how do we trust God to heal us? 

I think one of the hardest things about getting well is being afraid to trust God with our healing. I mean, after all, if God made the universe and sees everything that goes on then where was he when I was being hurt? Why didn’t he intervene? How can I fully trust that he wants to help me, not hurt me?

If we don’t understand God’s love for us, it can be hard to follow him.

We don’t trust someone we don’t know, so unless we know God we’re probably not ready to jump into anything he offers us. But how do we get to know him and his trustworthiness? The Bible says that “we love because He first loved us.” (I John 4:19) God wants us to follow him out of our love for him, but we won’t learn to love him unless we obey him.

It seems like a Catch-22 doesn’t it?

According to I John 4:18, we will no longer be afraid of God when we learn that he loves us and wants our best. We can see God in all of creation around us: in a newborn baby, the sparkle of sunlight like diamonds on the ocean, or the way our young son slips his small hand into ours. When a friend hugs us or we experience something that thrills the deepest part of us, God is displaying his love for us.

But God shows his love in another way too.

The best way to understand the depth of his love is to experience his faithfulness. When God instructs us (you know that little nudge to do or say something?), and we take a step in faith to follow, and God comes through in that situation, we see that he is faithful. The more we step out in faith, and see him miraculously meet us in each situation, the more we will understand his love for us. Then it’s easier to love him in return.

I know this from experience!

At a time when I was going through an awful divorce, I felt God urging me to relocate. I was trying to start over in my life with my three youngest teenaged children. Through a series of events, God directed me to move. But there were so many obstacles! I had a house lease, a teaching contract, a scholarship given to my oldest daughter for a local college, no money, no job in the new location and no place to live. Crazy, right? Regardless of all those reasons not to move, after praying and getting advice, I felt God was telling me to go and trust him to take care of everything.

And he did!

As soon as I told him I was willing to go, things began to fall into place. New friends offered to let us live with them until we found a house. My landlord called to say they had someone who wanted to rent our place should we ever want to move out. With only a simple inquiry, the scholarship board agreed to allow my daughter to use the scholarship at a different school even though the rules designated it for the local college. The principal at my school told me they would gladly release me from my contract even though they hated to see me go. And, they blessed me with a financial gift large enough to cover my moving expenses. Then, two days before we left, as we were packing the truck, a school I wanted to work at called to ask if I would be interested in interviewing for a temporary long term substitute teaching position. Needless to say, the domino circumstances amazed us, and I fell more in love with the God who was orchestrating it all.

That didn’t mean it was easy.

Even with all those incredible situations, the move was challenging and frightening. It’s not like God made the way completely smooth with no difficulties. But he kept coming through over and over, and I learned to lean on him and trust him as he took care of us. With each step it was easier to take the next one, and I was being healed in the process.

All of this starts by trusting what he’s already done for us.

He took the first step of showing his love for us when he went to the cross. As we accept what he did, we can trust him a little at a time. Jesus tells us that if we have faith even as little as a mustard seed (which, in case you’ve never seen one, is very small) we could move mountains. Wow! Mountains moved by us having only a mustard seed worth of faith in God’s power. God loves us so much he is willing to give us greatness in exchange for something that seems so insignificant.

God certainly has moved some mountains for me. His desire is to do the same for everyone and anyone who calls on him. Let the healing begin.