Why You Can't Heal Yourself in Isolation
I started studying healing prayer so I would never have to tell another person my baggage. That's pretty … independent, shall we say. It also didn't work.
I've been thinking about the need for other people in my life.
I started studying healing prayer so that I could do it on myself and would never have to reveal my baggage to any other person.
That's pretty … independent, shall we say?
And, in the end, not very effective.
When I call my sister because I need healing or breakthrough, she can see a lie I’m believing far easily than I can, because I don’t know that I’m believing a lie.
And I can't call out the good in me, because I can’t see it—so often it's been distorted.
I need somebody else to come along and wipe away the smear, wipe away the mud, wipe away the ugliness that's been obscuring my true identity.
And after I’ve been reminded of what I’m not, I also need other people to say, “This is who you are. This is who God's made you to be.”
I can’t always see this on my own.
Isolation hides the lie, and it also hides the gift.
Perry Marshall talks about how we each have a superpower, something we're uniquely gifted at doing. If the top student in a class scored 100% on a science test, and the second student scored 98%, the score indicates that one student is a bit better.
Except that if the top student were allowed to get extra credit to the extent of their ability, the top student might get 500% on the test—outstandingly better.
We have no idea how excellent we are at our superpowers. And often we don't know what they are, because that's part of the deception and part of the need for community.
Lord, Hebrews 10:25 tells us to consider how we may spur one another on, motivate one another, stir one another up toward love and good deeds.
Lord, you have a purpose for each of us. You’ve given us abilities and gifts and passions. Where we forget, or grow discouraged, or listen to lies … Lord, encourage us. Put your courage in us. Give us companions on the road who speak life to us and over us. Show us how to fellowship, one with another, and, yes, stir one another up to love and good deeds.
Thank you, Lord.
Strengthen one another,
Amy Joy
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