By His Wounds

By Susan Dollyhigh –

I prayed, “Lord, please take away my fear…” and the dam broke. My body quaked with sobs, and the river of tears which sprang from a deep, painful place in my body, washed down my face in a torrent. And then I saw myself, wearing the same red sweater and blue jeans that I had on that day, climbing on my hands and knees up a steep and rocky hill. My hand reached up to grab a ledge of rocks as my high heeled boot slipped, threatening to send me sliding down the hill on my belly. I steadied myself, and continued climbing, all the while wailing from the depths of my soul.

I stopped to rest, swiped my face across the sleeve of my sweater, and looked up …and saw Christ on the cross. I had to get to Him. I frantically grabbed onto rocks to keep from falling, and when I reached the top, I ran to the foot of the cross and collapsed. My emotions were released from the prison where they’d resided for so long, and I cried the river of tears that brought healing to my soul.

As a six-year-old little girl, I’d heard, “Now, don’t you cry,” as I stood before my sixteen-year-old cousin’s casket. I remember feeling like I would choke from the emotion that was stuck in my throat. But I didn’t cry, and the Enemy turned that into a stronghold.

Forty years later, I shared with a counselor several tragic events that had taken place in my life – and I didn’t cry. I discovered that I was emotionally paralyzed. As my counselor and I prayed for that stronghold to be broken, I never dreamed I would end up climbing Calvary’s Hill. But when I rose from the foot of Jesus’s cross, my heart had been resurrected and made whole.

Do you need healing in your life? Take your problems to the Lord, for it is by His wounds we are healed.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5 NIV).

PRAYER: Father, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for revealing and breaking strongholds in my life. Thank you for the freedom and joy to experience being set free from bondage.

In Jesus’s Name, Amen