A WOUNDED SPIRIT

I am sure most all of us have had situations where we have seen someone fall or have some type of accident that struck us as funny only to have the person say to us “That wasn’t funny.” I recently ran across some stories of people who when explaining what happen most likely heard someone laugh at what they said and who may have thought, “That wasn’t funny,” Here are a couple:

"I was on my way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident."

"The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him."

"I had been driving for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident."

“The car in front hit the pedestrian but he got up so I hit him again"

Well what happen may not have been funny but the way they told it was. While I wish I could do that with our topic it is too serious to try and treat in a light heart way. What I am talking about is a wounded spirit.

Solomon said, "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Proverbs 18:14. The same Hebrew word is translated broken in Proverbs 17:22, where we read, "...a broken spirit drieth the bones." The Hebrew word literally means "stricken." In both verses the NIV says "a crushed spirit." While it does not say that a wounded spirit can’t be borne it certainly indicates it is a difficult thing to do. I would like to notice with you what is a wounded spirit, how can you tell if someone has a wounded spirit, how our spirit can become wounded, and the healing of a wounded spirit.

WHAT IS A WOUNDED SPIRIT?

The Bible describes a wounded spirit as particularly painful wound. There are several ways the pain is described by the Bible and all of them indicate it is something that is painful and difficult to deal with. Proverbs 18:14, “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Here the scripture says a wounded spirit is more difficult to endure than physical sickness. Physical sickness can be sustained by a healthy spirit but a wounded spirit is difficult to sustain. I say sustain because the word bear in this verse means sustain or endure. Proverbs 17:22, “a broken spirit drieth the bones.” One translation says, “A broken spirit saps ones strength.” Referring to the wounds inflicted upon the spirit by a talebearer Proverbs 18:8, “The words of a talebearer [are] as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly”. If I can paraphrase this verse I would say, “When someone says something bad about you and you find out what they said it’s like being punched in the stomach.” What I understand Solomon to mean is a person with a strong spirit can endure a great deal even a serve illness but when a person’s spirit is wounded or broken it can have a traumatic and devastating effect upon them.

Let me illustrate this by comparing a spiritual wound to a physical wound. We know if we don’t clean a physical wound and apply an antibiotic and bandage it that it can become infected. The same is true of a wound to the spirit if it is not treated properly it too can become infected.

A normal response to a wound to our spirit is to become angry. However, if we don’t deal with anger correctly that wound can become infected and turn into bitterness. Bitterness is very dangerous to our Spirit, we are warn in Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” If left untreated bitterness can fester into resentment, or brooding indignation. Eventually the resentment can turn into the poison of hate.

But the additional danger of an infected spiritual wound is it can be transmitted to others. The word, “defile” means to, “Dye with another color, to stain.” The idea as I understand is if hatred infects ones Spirit it can spread. Paul describes this spreading infection as destructive infighting. Paul said in Gal. 5:15, “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” When a person’s becomes injured or wounded it can setup a situation where retaliation seems justified. Should they retaliates then the person who is retaliated against feels they are justified if they retaliate. What you have is a situation which Paul describes as animals fighting with each other and the winner devours those that it kills.

A wound to the spirit can affect us emotionally. Proverbs 17:22, “A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Psalms 102:4, “My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.” When it says a broken spirit drieth the bones it is saying it saps a person’s strength, and my heart is smitten and withered like grass is talking about being depressed. This type of infection if not treated could become so severe that it could possibly even lead to suicide.

A wound to our spirit can even affect us physically. Proverbs 15:13, “by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.” Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese Twins lived a fairly prosperous life by running a plantation and exhibitions. One day Chang died while he and his brother were sleeping; when Eng awoke, he was consumed with grief, wrapped himself around his brother and refused to the let the surgeons separate the two them, and died three hours later. It was reported later he said, “He’s my brother. We’ve been together from before we were born. I simply won’t live without him.” It is not uncommon when one spouse dies that the other spouse dies a short time later. Johnny Cash died three months after his wife died.

The weapon that wounds the spirit the most is the tounge.  From it come the words that cut deep into ones spirit and cause a wound that can affect us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

Bumper Pushing

Let us imagine that someone presents you with a brand new car as a gift which for illustration purposes we will say represents your new life in Christ. Now you do the most unusual thing, you get behind the car and begin to push. Why would you do that? Because when you look around you see all the other Christians are pushing their car so you follow their example. Because you are a new Christian you are so happy you start pushing your car and begin telling everyone “isn’t this great.” After awhile you begin to wear down but another Christian says to you, "what you need to do is bear down more and use leverage," so you try that for awhile. Then another Christian tells you what you need to do is turn around and push the bumper with your legs and so you try that for a time but no matter what you do after a time you begin to wear down and you begin to think this is hard.

Then one day you go to a meeting about bumper pushing. The speaker is very interesting and presents some new ideas on bumper pushing so you leave all fired up and are determined to push on that bumper better that ever and for a while you do. Then one day you just can’t push it anymore and you stop. Another Christian sees you and yells over to you, “don’t give up man, you can do it I know you can, don’t you know how much Jesus loved you so that you could have the opportunity to live for Him?” Now you feel guilty for stopping, so you start pushing again but there is no joy in it like there was at first.

Then one day another Christian pulls up beside you who is sitting inside their car and they see you pushing. So they stop and get out and ask what is the problem; no problem I’m just pushing my car, praise God that I have one to push. Pushing your car? Why in the world are you pushing? Because I love God, don’t you? Of course I love the Lord but that still doesn’t explain why you’re pushing the car. Well that is what you do; look around everyone else is doing the same thing. Why we are some of the best bumper pushing Christian you will ever find. So he looks around in disbelief and says, stop pushing, come here I want to show you something. So he goes around to your car opens the hood and says look do see that? So you look and you see this glowing power source of some kind, what is it? That is what makes the car run come around here and get inside and set down. See that key there, it is called faith, see that pedal that is called grace, see that steering wheel it is called obedience. Now what you do is turn the key and press on that peddle and steer.

I believe, and this come from my own personal experience in living the Christian life; that so many times we do not understand the old covenant and the new covenant as we should. Though we are under the new covenant we live like we are under the old covenant.  In very simple terms the old covenant was governed by the law but the new covenant is governed by grace. Both are very important and play a significant part in understanding our relationship with God. However, if they are misunderstood our relationship with the Lord can become on in which we are be pushing on the outside bumper instead of driving from the inside.  Like the law of gravity and aerodynamics must be understood if you want to fly so law and grace must be understood if you want to soar for God.

The new covenant is what we live under, “this cup” Jesus said is the new covenant in my blood. The new covenant was promised by God. It is a covenant in which he forgives our sins and makes us righteous. God promised, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Jeremiah 31:33. Through our relationship in Christ God promised to make us mighty oaks of righteousness, Isaiah 61:3.

I don’t know how to stress this enough, what God promised was an internal working on our heart that flows to an outward life, “I will write my law on their hearts.” That is so unlike the philosophies and religions of man where external forces are brought to bear upon man to change him. But as we saw in our last blog, "The Doo Doo Catapult" external force does not work in our relationships with each other, so why would we think it will work in our relationship with the Lord?

Why only one book?

Have you ever wondered how many different flowers God created for our use and enjoyment? It seems when God created them he went into some type of creative over drive, the variety of colors, shapes, and smells seem to be endless. So it makes me wonder why only the Bible? When you consider the imagination and creative power of God he could have made millions of books for us to read so why only this... one book, well there is more than one but they are all contained neatly into one handy volume. But God could have created a vast library of books; so many that we would never have been able to read them all. So again why only this one volume? I don’t claim to have any definitive answer but perhaps knowing God isn’t all that complicated. When you get right down to it that is what the Bible is about is our relationship with God. Certainly there is much more contained in the Bible but still the central theme from beginning to end is God’s dramatic and profound revelation that he is love and that he loves you and I. Perhaps that is why God didn’t flood us with too much information He didn’t want us to lose sight of that one thing that means the most in any relationship and that is love. It seems to me to cut through all the clutter God is saying repeatedly I am Love and I LOVE YOU! It isn’t that we don’t have enough information to go on, it’s do we believe what we have been told