Surrender your heart to God, turn to him in prayer, and give up your sins-- even those you do in secret. Then you won't be ashamed; you will be confident and fearless. Job 11:13-15
People build walls to hide their feelings and cover up their problems and wrongdoing. We’ve all done it. We even begin to believe the lies we are telling ourselves and others. Eventually we may be unable to see the truth at all. We hide behind a hardened wall of internal pain, scars and guilt.
Life-controlling problems are usually accompanied by painful feelings of guilt and shame. This kind of pain is an indication that something is wrong. When pain comes as a result of our sin, we need to humble ourselves, confess our fault, ask forgiveness of God and those we have offended, and right any wrongs we have done. However … sometimes it seems easier just to ignore the pain.
God designed painful feelings to be a warning system. They let us know when we need to pay attention to something in our lives. But too often we bury our feelings and don’t admit, even to ourselves, the problems deep within. These buried feelings may explode to the surface when we least expect them, causing us to do something rash or to hurt someone we care about.
I heard someone say this about hiding problems: “It’s kind of like trying to keep an air balloon underwater … it’s hard work. And a person works hard to keep those feelings down … to keep from facing the real issues. But you know that balloon will pop – that’s why you have emotional outbursts … There’s something buried there.”
Is there a balloon(s) in your life that you are trying to hold underwater? Today’s scripture urges us to surrender it to God, giving it all to Him … all of our secrets, all of our hurt, all of our scars and allow his warmth, his peace and his loving spirit to flow through us.
Tim Carlisle
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