Avoiding Hurts Doesn't Help
Have you ever heard the saying "hurt people, hurt people"? It simply means that people who have been hurt and are still hurting emotionally will go about hurting other people. In essence it creates a domino effect of hurt. I get hurt by someone and then I go on and say or do something to someone else that hurts them. The cycle continues. But, I ask you, is that the life God wants from you? Does God want you to go around being hurt? Does He want you to go around hurting others? Or does God want you to heal from that emotional pain?
One thing avoiding hurt does is it can eat at us. It can gnaw away at who we have become in Christ and slowly evolve us into someone else that has seemingly forgotten what Christ means to us. When carrying a hurt we can overeat, drink alcohol in excess, use drugs, even go on shopping sprees. All of these things (and others) can serve as band aids to the hurt that we feel when we think of that person, that time frame in our personal history or what was done/said that hurt us. When you break a bone, you don't put a band aid on it, you get surgery if necessary or at least a cast. But a band aid to a major problem does nothing. God wants you to stop putting band aids on your hurts. God wants us to come to Him for all things. We see that truth in Matthew 9:20-22. The woman who had had a monthly flow for 12 years believed that if she just barely touched Jesus's clothes that she could be healed. He acknowledged her when she touched his clothes and told her that her faith has made her well. Jesus wants us to reach out to him when we are hurt emotionally or sick physically.
Tell God what is going on with you. Tell Him about what happened. You can complain to God. He can take it. He wants to hear from you the same way you want to hear from your own children (if you have them) if they have some hurt in their life. God wants to comfort us and heal our broken hearts (Psalm 147:3). Write down what bothers you. Put it in a journal if need be. For things in the past, try to remember that they are not still happening to you. Stop reliving that hurt too. Be around people who encourage you to do and be what God wants from you. Thinking about it often or all the time doesn't help to heal you which means you cannot be who you need to be for God's Kingdom. Be well, be with God.
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Herod's Disbelief
Remember Herod from Matthew 2 when Jesus was born? He was in power when Jesus was born. He was the one that sought to kill Jesus after he was born but was tricked by the wise men who originally had been instructed to bring baby Jesus to Herod. His son, Herod the tetrarch (the Herod from this chapter) is the one that had John the Baptist beheaded (click here for more details).
John the Baptist was someone who foretold of the coming of Jesus in Luke 3. Herod the tetrarch had heard about all of the healing and miracles Jesus was doing and was perplexed (puzzled). Rumors were going around that a dead prophet (Elijah or John the baptist) had risen from the dead and was the one really doing the miracles through Jesus. Even though Herod the tetrarch was puzzled, in Luke 9:9 is says "And he sought to see him."
You know what you don't see much is the disbelief in Jesus that leads to an individual doing their own research. Herod the tetracrh went to go see for himself. I see alot of disblief in Christ today that leads to belief in emotion and feelings. People feel it must not be true (Jesus's miracles and life and resurrection) and then they believe it. They do not try to find out how something done is so amazing that it must not be true.
My point is that if you do not believe, do your own research. There are plenty of resources out there online that give you the information you need in order to understand the existence of Christ. Many say Christians have blind faith because you cannot prove this (the ark of the covenant or that Noah's ark) so things must not be true. People provide no evidence to counter, just an emotion.
We have to be careful not to let our emotions dictate what we do and do not do. Reactions from our feeling such as anger and lust can lead to sinful ways that draw us further from God. No matter what you feel, seek. Seek Jesus. Seek God's will. Seek the evidence. Go and see for yourself. Jesus wasn't made up.
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