The Sermon on the Mount Heals Lifelong Emotional Pain

The Sermon on the Mount Heals Lifelong Emotional Pain

I’ve been in a life-long quest to find freedom from the past. Ever since I was 14 years old I’ve been trying to heal a relationship with a close family member. When I was in college I finally came to see this person as Gods beloved child. However, the emotional distress this person was causing continued. It seemed that she consistently found ways to belittle me and degrade my choices and my family.

Recently I was asked to confront this person, along with a family counselor. I was told I had better go because this person really wanted to find a way to stop doing the things that were so hurtful. So I was supposed to go and tell her and the counselor what behaviors I wanted her to change.

I found in even thinking about having to confront her, I would get sick to my stomach. Of course I wanted her behavior to change, but I knew that if I actually told her the things she did that were hurting me, it would really hurt her (as there were so many things).

However, I came up with a list of things that were hurtful and needed to be changed. But, on the drive out of town to go to this meeting, it came to me to study the Sermon on the Mount. In it I found the answer to letting go of the past.

Jesus stressed over and over the importance of forgiveness. Forgive every single person of every single thing – and quickly. No holding grudges, no condemning or criticizing, no judging. He was very clear on this. Suddenly, I knew that if I was to bring up the past, it was directly against what Jesus taught about living a Christian life. It was my duty to forgive her immediately and let go.

This is what I had been trying to do for so long, but reading it in Jesus’ words, hearing it from his mouth finally made it clear. If I was to be a Christian, I had no choice but to let things go, forgive, and refuse to judge or condemn or criticize.

What a freeing thought. Christ Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, and even to pray for them! How can you pray for someone and be holding on to hurtful things at the same time. It was impossible!

From that moment on it became very clear that I could not go into the meeting with the list I had come up with (which was 4 pages long!). Instead I went to the meeting expressing gratitude for the progress this person has made and was able to make very general comments about letting go of the past and having us both only talk about loving things from now on.

A wonderful thing happened. For the first time ever, I was completely free from holding on to the past. Never before had I found a way to completely let go of the things that had happened in the past. Now, I was just free of it all. Before, it seemed like such a part of my identity, of who I was. But now I saw that it was my duty to stop holding on to painful things from the past because that wasn’t in line at all with Jesus’ teachings.
The process of letting go of the past was natural and quick. I’ve never felt freer. I felt free from the need to confront this person and point out how she nearly ruined my life. I felt free from the need to hold on to the hurtful things and continue to be hurt by this person. I felt free from the need to ever think about those things again. They were NOT part of me. I had to live by the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and boy was it freeing!

If you’d like to learn more – see Matthew 5-7 in the Bible. Study it, ponder it, apply it to your life and see the tremendous healings that emerge.
also visit www.GodDoesHeal.com