Heal Yourself: Partner With God to Heal Your HurtSample

Cultivate Your Relationship With God

I was livid during my morning devotion time. I had barged into God’s presence angry and frustrated about a long-standing relationship with a friend. Yet again, I was hurting because of something she had done. As I yelled and complained to God with tears flowing down my face, the Lord spoke gently to my heart. “You must forgive.” My mind immediately rushed to an encounter years prior. I had been harboring unforgiveness in my heart since then. It was so long ago that I had forgotten. God had called me on the carpet.

There are some things that are only revealed in relationship with God. Some things, only God can do. We can only take some actions by the power of the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness is a divine act that is easier said than done. Yet, it is possible to forgive by His grace and through the power of His Spirit. In order to heal yourself, you must cultivate your relationship with God.

Cultivating our relationship with God is a daily practice. We must practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, bible reading, attending corporate worship, and living according to Biblical principles. Will we do so perfectly? No, but we will practice. Practice doesn’t make you perfect; practice makes you good. We are perfectly imperfect yet loved by a perfect God. We fall down, but we rise again to walk by faith in His grace.

God searches the heart. In scripture, the psalmist cries for God to search his heart. As we cultivate our relationship with God, He searches us. He identifies our wicked ways, toxic behaviors, and improper thoughts, then reveals them to us. This revelation requires our action–even if that action is simply to cry out as David did in Psalm 51:10, “Lord, create in me a clean heart!” Our proximity to God allows Him to clean our hearts and renew our spirits. Our partnership with God facilitates our healing as He does his miraculous work in our souls.

Father, help me to cultivate my relationship with you. Search me O God and create in me a clean heart and renewed spirit.

In what ways can you cultivate your relationship with God? What spiritual disciplines do you need to practice more consistently to draw nearer to God?

Intimacy with God is a place of privilege accessed through humility.