My friend recently had a second knee replacement operation. The first one had been very painful with a long recovery period. The doctor told her the second one would be much harder since that knee had been operated on several years prior and had a piece of metal imbedded into the bone that would need to be cut out. She almost backed out thinking, “forget it, I’ll just live with it the way it is.” She realized how much fear she was in because of the pain she went through with the first one. The doctor reassured her that she needed to go through with this especially since it was now an inch shorter than her other leg. Realizing how well the first knee recovered, she hesitantly agreed to the second operation. (The Lord convinced her it would be well worth it!)
She came through the operation and 2 days later, walked out of the hospital on her new knee! My friend was ecstatic by the outcome! The Doctors and nurses called it a miracle because she recovered so quickly and didn’t have nearly any pain as before, not to mention they told her she didn’t need physical therapy! This was her answer to the prayers she received from her church family 3 days before the surgery.
She explained to me the process she was now going through to learn how to walk correctly after years of compensating for pain. She told me how she no longer needed to lock her knees with each step. She was able to flex her feet, toes and ankles and not walk flat-footed as she always had done before. She was using muscles that she hadn’t used in decades. Even her thigh and calf muscles were waking up.
As she related her story to me, the Holy Spirit began to show me what she is going through in the natural is what many of us are going through spiritually. God spoke to my heart and said, “You are going to use spiritual muscles that you haven’t used in a while.” Because of what I had gone through, I was compensating for my pain (spiritually, mentally and emotionally).
We are given time to heal from the soul-injuries of our past, but now it is time to submit to His process of walking again. It’s time to move ahead without compensating for the pain we once knew. We need to flex our faith (muscles) and live out of who God has made us to be. We are new creatures in Christ Jesus. The old is gone, the new has come. Forget the former things. Do not cling to the past – don’t even remember it. We will still see the scars because they are now a part of us – just not defining us any longer. Remember, Jesus still bears the scars in His hands and His feet, but He doesn’t ever let that hold Him back – that would be silly! It’s because of His scars He is who He is – He’s overcome everything! We are in Christ and as He is; so are we in this world, scars and all!
Circumstances and situations are always going to be there, but the process and the battles are not to be feared! Take into account that God is always doing a new thing in us. We brace for the worse, not realizing that this new thing He is doing will be different – even necessary for our spiritual growth.
Isaiah 43:18,19; Do not remember the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
The key to our spiritual growth is to surrender our all to God. By that I mean, look to Him for the process and the outcome of what He wants to accomplish in us (Christlikeness). To move forward, we need to let go of our past perceptions, fears and mindsets of what we’ve been through. He also does not waste anything. He will use our pain, our failures, our heartache to lead us forward. He causes all things to work out for our good. By surrendering to Him, we are in essence saying, “Go ahead (with this operation), I know that it will turn out for my good because I submit and place myself in your capable (surgeon) hands. We can absolutely trust Him with our lives even though we don’t like it at the time – knowing that what God wants to do in our life is necessary. He doesn’t need our permission to perfect us – because we already belong to Him. However, the process goes down much better when we willingly submit. He knows what He’s doing and how to bring about His desired results in us – He is a skillful surgeon!
Commune In The Garden 