O LORD my God, I cried to you for help and you have healed me. Psalm 30:2
Recently, I was hospitalized for a staph infection that had invaded a simple scrape on my forehead. One side of my temple ballooned into a red, angry mass and the skin around my eye swelled shut. It spread to my cheek and jaw. They put me on IV antibiotics, but the infectious disease doctor told me true healing would not occur until the wound was lanced and drained. One moment of crying out in pain as they did that procedure at my bedside, and within just a few days all was back to normal and the wound healing nicely. The doctor warned me to keep on oral antibiotics for a week when I got home though, just in case.
I heard a friend in Toastmasters give a speech about battling depression soon after that. Her healing came not from pills with all their side effects, or even from counseling, though the latter did help. It was when a friend brought her to church, she accepted Christ into her life, and began pouring out her deepest innermost heart to Him that the wound was finally lanced, cleansed and began to heal from the inside out. His love healed her.
When something is festering inside of us, either emotional or physical, it needs to come out. Stress can lead to all sorts of physical manifestations. The cleansing has to occur before the true healing can begin. I think God gave us tears for a reason. Tears cleanses our eyes of debris, but a good cry also cleanses the soul, with God’s help. It is the best medicine. How often have you, after a good cry, felt so much weight lifted from your shoulders?
The funny thing is that I will cry at a drop of a hat for joy, at Hallmark commercials, puppies in the laps of small children and the national anthem. But to break down and cry when I am angry, hurt or stressed out is something I fight. It builds up until it becomes overwhelming. I have learned before that happens I need to set aside some quiet, on-my-knees time to let it go and give it to the Father. When the world begins to put way too much pressure on me, God is calling me to release it in cries to Him. Christ suffered and died for me after being betrayed by almost everyone he knew, so He understands sorrow. He even cried when He was on the earth when his friend Lazarus died. The Holy Spirit is there to bolster me and comfort me.
I need to get to the point to where I can burst out with that initial cry in the privacy of my room. Then, finally, the cleansing will occur and the healing begin. But, like the antibiotics I had to continue to take even after I was “almost healed”, I must keep coming to Him each and every day to keep the ugly from re-infecting my thoughts and soul again. That is when true healing from the inside out happens. And His loving Spirit acts as the Probiotics did in my digestive system, to restore balance.
