Kerry Shook - Healing When You're Hurting
You know, this weekend, we’re concluding the series we’ve been in called the «Rodeo of Life.» As we’ve been going to God’s Word to learn how to hold on when life tries to knock us down, this is also the last weekend of the biggest rodeo in the world: the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Now, of course, the biggest attraction at the rodeo is usually the concerts each night. Over the years, some of the greatest country singers of all time have sung some of the biggest country songs of all time at the rodeo. Country songs are known for their catchy titles, those hooks that draw you in, and those turn phrases that stick with you. So, I thought that I would start the message by giving you a list of some of the most hilarious country songs of all time. Folks, these are real songs; some you can find on YouTube. I looked them up, and these are real country songs, even though it’s a little hard to believe.
Here’s one that’s really powerful: «My Wife Ran Off with My Best Friend, and I Sure Do Miss Him.» Yeah, this one I don’t even understand, but Bobby Bear sang it in the late'70s; it’s true, it’s a real song: «Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through the Goalpost of Life.» I don’t have a clue what it means; you can go watch it on YouTube and figure it out. And here’s one that is so true: «How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away?» Yeah, here’s one of my favorites: «If Your Phone Don’t Ring, You’ll Know It’s Me.» It takes a second for you to get «9:30,» missed it completely.
So, here’s one with a really long title: «I Went Back to My Fourth Wife for the Third Time and Gave Her a Second Chance to Make a First-Class Fool Out of Me.» I think that’s pretty much all the words of the song. I don’t know. Here’s one that gets right to the point: «She Got the Ring and I Got the Finger.» Yep, some of you, that happened to you; we’re praying for you today, you know we’re praying. And this one-unbelievable, all-time favorite -"You’re the Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly.» That’s a real song by Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty; you can watch it if you want. I wouldn’t, but you can if you want.
Hey, the biggest theme in country music has always been heartbreak. Probably the second biggest theme is whiskey, and the third biggest theme is heartbreak mixed with whiskey, maybe with God thrown in; you never know. But the biggest theme is broken hearts and deep hurts that are hard to heal. We’ve all experienced heartbreak; we all carry deep hurts. We can look like we have it all together on the outside, but on the inside, we all have broken places. Sometimes our hearts are shattered in a million pieces. We all carry hidden hurts. Everybody you’re sitting next to right now, I guarantee you, even if you don’t know anything about them, has a hidden hurt.
Everybody you will run into tomorrow in your neighborhood, or at your workplace, or at your school, they all carry hidden hurts. Maybe they’re hurting in their marriage, or maybe they’re hurting in a relationship with a teenage son or teenage daughter. Maybe they’re hurting because someone they trusted stabbed them in the back and betrayed their trust. Maybe they’re hurting because they don’t have a close friend. They can look really successful on the outside; you can envy them. But on the inside, they’re hurting because they don’t have anyone in their life they can share their heart with. Maybe it’s a broken dream or a broken relationship, or maybe they’re hurting emotionally with anxiety or depression. Maybe it’s a physical illness that they’re dealing with day after day. On the outside, we can look great, but on the inside, we’re all broken.
But I’ve got good news for all of us who have broken places in our lives and hurts in our hearts: God wants to take our brokenness and turn it into blessedness. And God says to you today, your hurt is not hidden from Me. Maybe no one else knows, but I know. I know your hurt, and I hurt with you, and I can heal your hurt. So, I want you to stand in honor of God’s Word as we look at a powerful passage of Scripture, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, that the Apostle Paul wrote. He said, «But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.» You can be seated.
Paul says we have this priceless treasure inside us, but we’re just jars of clay. That means we’re breakable. We don’t like to admit we’re breakable, but we are. Our hearts can be broken easily; our emotions can be shattered easily. I don’t like to admit I’m breakable because that means I’m vulnerable, that I can be hurt. I don’t like to admit I can be hurt, but I can be hurt. When I’m hurt, I usually act like it’s no big deal. You know, I’m a Christ follower; I’m above that. Yeah, they did something that was hurtful, but it didn’t really bother me; that stuff doesn’t get to me. It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t anything much, and I don’t really get in touch with how it hurt. I just kind of move on. But when you don’t deal with a hurt, they build up, and they can really hurt you in ways you don’t realize at first. It can come out in all kinds of crazy ways in your life, but we don’t like to admit we’re hurt because it means we’re vulnerable, we’re breakable.
The competitors I admire the most in the rodeo are the professional bull riders. I mean, those guys are crazy courageous-and mostly crazy. It’s been called the most dangerous eight seconds in sports: the cowboy tries to ride a 2,000-pound angry bucking bull with its snot flying. Those guys are as tough and courageous as it gets, but compared to the bull, they’re extremely vulnerable; they’re really fragile. Every professional bull rider has been hurt many times: broken bones, concussions, lacerations, torn muscles, and a lot worse. The bull is hard to break, but the rider is extremely breakable. No matter how tough you are, there are times that life knocks you down and shatters your heart, and you experience deep hurts that need divine healing. But it’s those hurts that turn me to the Healer.
Look at Jeremiah 17:14: «Lord, you alone can heal me; you alone can save, and my praises are for you alone.» Folks, there are some hurts only God can heal. Only God can heal a broken heart. Only God can heal damaged emotions. Only God can heal a broken relationship-really, only God can heal, period. Many times He uses wonderful, brilliant doctors, and medicines, and new technologies, and therapists. But ultimately, it’s God who does the healing, and it’s the hurts in my life that turn me to the Healer if I’ll admit them.
I want you to look at what the psalmist said in Psalm 147. David always shared his hurts with God. God knows your hurts, and He wants you to come to Him with your hurts for healing. In Psalm 147:3, it says, «He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.» God is the great doctor; He can heal the broken places in your life. God is the Healer when you’re hurting. We have this treasure in jars of clay. We may be ordinary; we may be breakable jars of clay; we may be cracked pots. Some of you are more cracked than others; some of you are crack pots.
You know, I can’t really deal with that right now, but we have this priceless treasure inside of us. We contain a priceless treasure if you’re a Christ follower. So when you’re hurting, when your heart is broken, when your self-worth is shattered, you need to realize your true worth and how valuable you are. You have to realize your great value. It’s not what’s on the outside that makes me valuable; it’s what’s on the inside. I contain a priceless treasure on the inside. It’s not what’s on the outside; it’s what’s on the inside. I’m an ordinary jar of clay on the outside, many times broken and cracked, but on the inside, I have the life of Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe, and the power of His resurrection literally living inside me.
Several times, Chris and I visited a place in Israel called Kumran. It’s there in the Dead Sea; it’s out in the desert. There are these cliffs with all these caves in there, and it’s the place where, in 1947, a young Bedouin shepherd who was looking for a stray goat happened across this little cave. It was dark, so he threw a rock in the cave, and he heard something break. When he went into the cave, he found a clay pot that had been shattered by the rock he threw. Inside the clay pot, he found an ancient manuscript. He took it into town and sold it to an antique dealer for pennies because he didn’t realize the manuscripts he found were the greatest archaeological discovery of our time: the Dead Sea Scrolls. They actually included manuscripts of books of the Bible.
The book of Isaiah was in its entirety, and it looks just the same as our Bible today. These manuscripts were a thousand years older than any other manuscript that had ever been found from God’s Word. He had no idea the value of the treasure that was in that clay pot, and we have no idea of the value of the treasure that’s inside us as jars of clay. We focus on the fact that we’re fragile, that we’re jars of clay, that we’re ordinary. Don’t focus on that; focus on the treasure that’s inside you. When you’re hurting and you feel cracked and broken, focus on the treasure that’s inside you. If you’re a believer, you have the treasure of God’s presence literally inside you through His Holy Spirit.
In World War I, there was a weary band of soldiers who came across an old beaten-up phonograph and a scratched-up, kind of torn-up record. They looked at the name on the record, and it was the name of the greatest tenor of the day, Enrico Caruso. That night, around the campfire, as the men listened to that old phonograph, most of them couldn’t get past the scratches and the scars on the record. That’s all they heard. But a few of them listened past the scratches and the scars, and they heard the voice of the Master. You and I need to look past the scratches and the scars and the hurts in our lives to listen to the voice of the Master. We need to look past the noise of the enemy telling us that we’re worthless, that we can never be used of God, that we’re no good, that we have no value, and we need to listen to the voice of the Master as He says, «You have infinite worth; you contain a priceless treasure.»
To the young lady who hears the lies from our culture that say if you’re not starving yourself to be stick thin, then you’re not beautiful. If you don’t look like the supermodels on the internet or everyone else that posts pictures of themselves and uses that filter to make themselves look a little better, and they’re looking their very best that day, and if you don’t look like them, then you’re not beautiful. I want you to listen past the lies of the culture and listen to the voice of the God who made you, the Master, as He says to you, «You’re beautiful just the way you are. You don’t have to compare yourself to anyone else. I made you uniquely beautiful for a uniquely beautiful purpose. So stop comparing yourself; just rest in my love and my acceptance of you.»
To the man or woman who’s racing on the treadmill of success, climbing the corporate ladder to try to prove your worth, and some of you are racing as hard as you can, trying to prove to a father who didn’t give you approval, who was impossible to please, and you’re trying to prove by your successes that you’re worth something, that you’re somebody, that you’re valuable, and that father is no longer even on this Earth but you’re still doing it. You need to listen to the voice of your heavenly Father as He cuts through the noise and He says, «Be still and know that I am God. Be still and rest in my love. I love you not because of what you do, but because of who you are.» You can rest in my acceptance. Sure, it’s great to work hard-you need to. It’s fine to succeed; those are all good things. But just know that you don’t have to prove your worth to me. God says, «I love you because I love you because I love you.»
And to the mother of preschoolers who feels like everything you do is undone by the end of the day, and what you do is not recognized as valuable, listen past the noise of society and listen to the voice of the Master as He says to you, «What you’re doing is so valuable to me. I love you so much. As you hold your child, I will hold you, and I will keep you strong.»
To the single mom who hears messages day in and day out that your best just isn’t good enough and it never will be, that you will never be enough as you try to keep it all together at home and work, listen past the noises all around you and listen to the voice of the Master who says, «I am so proud of you; you are so valuable to me. Don’t give up because I’m on your side. I’m going to hold you up, and you’re going to make it.»
We have to cut out the noise of the crowd, listen past the scars and the scratches and the hurts and the brokenness in our lives, and listen to the voice of the Master as He tells us the truth of how valuable we are. We just listen to the wrong voices most of the time. I want us to go back to 2 Corinthians 4:7 because we’re going to really dig into this passage. Paul says, «But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all- surpassing power is from God and not from us.»
When you experience hurt, remember you have the treasure of God’s presence in you, but you also have the treasure of the power of God in you. One of the reasons God allows hurt into our lives is so we will learn to depend on His power rather than our own strength, which wears out, and we experience His healing power. If I never experienced pain and problems, I would never turn to God and rely on Him, and I wouldn’t experience how much He loves me. I wouldn’t experience how real He is. I wouldn’t experience His power in my life, and I would miss out on the reason I was created: to have a deep and loving relationship with a God who made me.
Maybe you feel like giving up today. You’ve been through so much, and you just don’t think you can take another step. You’re done; you’re worn out. You’ve got nothing left; your tank is empty. Don’t give up; just give over to Him. Just give everything over to Him, and you’ll experience the power of God in such a real way. His power will hold you together when everything feels like it’s falling apart. He will lift you up when you get knocked down, and He’ll give you the power to take the next step. You’ll be able to look back and say, «I don’t know how I made it through; I don’t know. It was one step at a time, and God gave me the power for the next step, and somehow He held me up, and I made it through with His power because I have the treasure of the power of God inside me. I may be a jar of clay on the outside, but I’ve got the power of God on the inside.»
Let’s look at the next two verses in 2 Corinthians 4: 8 and 9. Paul says, «We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.» Paul says, «I’m not going to lie to you; we’ve been broken and bruised, but we’re not bowing out because God’s power keeps bringing us back.» He said, «They’ve knocked us down, but they can’t knock us out because the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us and keeps raising us back up.» He says, «Life came crashing down on us, but we weren’t crushed because we have the all-powerful Creator of the universe holding us up. God Almighty lives in us-the God Almighty who is unbreakable, He’s unstoppable, He’s indestructible, and He lives in me. If you’re a Christ follower, you’ve got the power of God.»
The Scripture says the same power that raised Christ from the dead is alive in you to bring resurrection and strength in your life. God’s purpose for our lives will be fulfilled because it’s His purpose. No problem in this life can stop God’s purpose for my life. No pain in this life can stop God’s purpose for my life because God’s purpose can’t be stopped; it can’t be denied; it can’t be derailed. God’s purpose will always prevail, and God’s the Healer of the hurting.
He knows your hidden hurts; maybe no one else knows; maybe no one else cares. God knows. He knows the broken places in your heart; He knows your hidden hurt; He knows where you need healing in your life, and He can heal you. God is the Healer of the hurting. So, do you need a healing touch from God today? I believe He wants to heal today. I believe that He spoke in my heart to bring this message this weekend because He wanted to do some healing at Woodland Church. He’s here to heal today; He’s at our campuses to heal today; and He’s right there with you if you’re online in our online family-to heal today. He wants to heal today, and there are four kinds of healing that Christ does. First, there’s physical healing. I believe with all my heart that Jesus still heals physically today, and we’ve seen it so many times at Woodland Church.
Now, I know there are a lot of weird things out there about healing. I know there are some televangelists that say, «If you’ll give me a donation, then God will heal you. You plant a faith seed, a donation to the ministry, and God will heal you physically; God will change all your relationships; you’ll be healed.» I think that’s crazy, folks. You never have to pay money for God to heal you. You don’t have to pay for healing; you pray for healing. It’s a free, undeserved gift of God, just like salvation is.
Then there are some Christ followers who are prideful, and they say if you don’t get healed from a sickness, it just means you didn’t have enough faith. Some of the godliest people I’ve ever known prayed, and God didn’t heal them on this Earth, and they had great faith. But sometimes someone will say, «Well, I prayed for that person, and they died,» so it must be because they didn’t have enough faith, even though they’re 105 years old; they just didn’t have enough faith. No, they’re going to die anyway. Even if you get healed on this Earth, you’re still going to die. I mean, unless Jesus returns, every one of us in this room is going to die. Everyone in our Tascocita campus is going to die. Everyone in our downtown campus is going to die. Every one of you online, you’re going to die.
Now, isn’t that uplifting? Man, I have just lifted you up today. You came to get lifted up, not let down-you’re going to die. That’s right, so encouraging! You know, I believe, though, with all my heart that God still heals today, and just because there are some weird things out there about healing doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pray for healing. I believe God wants to heal people physically today. I think God wants to heal physically a lot more than He does because we don’t believe Him and pray. He just wants us to pray and let Him do it His way, in His time, how He wants to, because He knows what’s best. But we’re to pray, and we’re going to do that today, and we’re going to see God bring physical healing.
Then there’s emotional healing. There are emotional scars from the past that can affect everything in your life in the present, but God can heal damaged emotions. Then there’s relational healing. God has the power to heal and restore broken relationships, and we see it all the time at Woodland Church-marriages somehow miraculously coming back together, families who are fractured coming back together. God does that. But then there’s spiritual healing. The greatest healing of all is spiritual healing because we’re all infected with the disease of sin, and we all need salvation. When you receive Christ, you’re totally forgiven. You’re cleansed; you’re saved, and you come alive in your spirit, and you have heaven-the free gift waiting for you one day. That’s the greatest miracle of all: spiritual healing, salvation. It lasts for all eternity.
People ask Chris and me, you know, what’s the secret to Woodland Church and all this growth? We always say, first, well, we’ve got to blame that one on God: God does it. But God changes lives, and when someone’s life is changed, they get spiritual healing; their whole life is changed. They tell everyone-that’s the secret. It’s life change, and God’s the only one who can change a life. I can’t change one life, but God can change thousands of lives at Woodland Church through His Word, through fellowship, through prayer. When you come to know Christ, you receive the greatest healing of all-spiritual healing. It changes everything in your life. That’s the greatest healing-life change.
But how does God heal? I mean there are three ways that He does it. First, there’s immediate healing. It’s where we pray, and He heals right there on the spot. We see that so many times; it’s powerful because God wants to show you that He is so real, and that’s going to happen right after our service ends. Some of you are going to have one of our prayer team members-pastors pray for you, and God’s going to heal instantly. I love it when God does that.
But then there is also delayed healing. Sometimes healing is a process that He takes us through because He’s building our character. He wants to build our faith; He doesn’t heal instantly; He heals over time. Many times, when it comes to damaged emotions, He heals over time through forgiveness and through Christian counseling and restoration. Some healings, some physical healings, are delayed healings, where He wants us to keep praying and come to Him because He’s more interested in building our character than He is in the miracle itself. He brings the miracle because He loves us, but He’s more interested in that relationship with us and building our character to become more like Him.
Then there’s ultimate healing. On this Earth, if you get healed, eventually you’ll die unless Christ comes back first. But there’s a place of ultimate healing; it’s called heaven. It’s the place of no more. It’s where God put His foot down and said, «No more, no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more teardrops, no more death, no more grief; it’s over.» It’s the place of no more-the perfect place of healing, the perfect place of true fulfillment. I’m so grateful that there is a place called heaven, and as a Christ follower, you’re guaranteed ultimate healing one day. God’s going to heal-either immediately, or delayed healing, or ultimate healing. So we have to let God do His work, His way, and in His time.
One of those passages that were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls-in the book of Isaiah, that was in completion, the whole book-is what we’re going to read next in Isaiah 53. All of chapter 53 is a prophecy of the coming Christ. It’s amazing; I’ve seen it in the Jerusalem Museum, that section of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It says this: «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.» Praise God for that!
You see, He was pierced; He took the nails; He took the spear; He took the flogging so that we could have spiritual healing- forgiveness of our sins and heaven one day. He took all the wounds so that we could experience physical healing. By His wounds, we are healed. The deepest wounds in our hearts can be healed; He can bind up those wounds because of His power. What a powerful prophecy, and what a powerful promise: «And by His wounds, we are healed.» He was crushed on the cross so we can never be crushed. He died on that cross for us, and He rose again, and He lives in us with His power, so we can never be crushed. We can be knocked down; we can be hard-pressed, but He’s going to raise you up-that’s for sure.
You know, this passage goes on to say that we speak in faith and we believe His promise, whether we feel like it or not, and we claim it, and inwardly we’re being renewed day by day. Our jar of clay may be getting older; it may be getting more cracked, but you know what? The more cracks in your jar of clay, the more it lets the light of Christ shine through you so people look at you and say, «Something about that lady, something about that guy; don’t quite know what it is,» but they start to see Christ in you shining through you. The brokenness in your life, the brokenness in your jar of clay-if you’ll admit it and don’t try to hide it, you know what it does? It just lets Christ’s light shine through you even more and brings blessedness.
But how do we go about asking for healing? The Scripture is real clear about it. In James 5:14, it says, «If you are sick, call for the church leaders; have them pray for you and anoint you with olive oil in the name of the Lord.» So, it says that when you’re sick, when you need healing, what do you do? You ask the leaders, the pastors, the lay pastors, the prayer teams of the church to pray for you. You ask them to pray for you. See, it doesn’t say that, «Oh, you need to be a faith healer and go to all the hospitals and anoint them with oil and heal everyone, go room to room.» No, that’s not the way it works. It’s you come to one of the pastors, lay pastors, and ask for healing. That’s the way God works because God wants you to say what it is that you need.
That’s what He did in the New Testament. Many times before He worked a miracle, He asked the blind beggar, «What is it you need?» I mean, it was pretty obvious; Jesus knew what he needed, but He wanted him to say it: «I want to see.» So, what is it that you need? What hurt do you need healing from today? We’re going to have our pastors and prayer teams and lay pastors out at the fountain here at the Woodland campus, and out at the fountain at our Tascocita campus, and out in the plaza at our downtown campus to pray for you.
If you need healing from a hurt, we want you to go out there, and they’re just going to ask, «What can I pray for you about?» You tell them, «I need healing in this way,» or «Maybe it’s healing for someone you know,» or «I need healing emotionally, and here’s an issue that’s really hurting me,» or «I need healing physically, or I need healing relationally.» You tell them what you need, and then it says you anoint with oil; then they anoint you with oil and pray. So, we do that; why? Because we just want to obey Scripture because God says that’s how you do it.
So, we’re going to do it, and we have olive oil. Now, there’s nothing magical about the olive oil; it always has represented the Holy Spirit in Scripture, the power of God. So when we anoint with olive oil, it just means that we’re acknowledging that we’re not doing the healing-only God can heal. It’s only God who can heal, and so we do anoint with oil and pray for healing. The way they’re going to do that out there is they just put a little drop of olive oil on you and give you a tissue so you can wipe it off afterward, and they pray for you. We’re believing for God to heal; we’re believing for God to heal, and He’s going to do it with His power. God loves you, and He wants to show you how real He is.
So, I don’t know what your hurt is; I don’t know where you need healing. I don’t know where your broken places are, but God knows, and God cares, and God heals, and He wants to make Himself real. You know, I love the fact that every weekend, we have agnostics and atheists who come to Woodland Church- people of all different backgrounds and levels of spiritual growth.
You know, seminary professors might be sitting next to an agnostic at Woodland Church. I love that about our church. You see, maybe you’re not even sure God is real; that’s okay. That’s okay; if you’re here, you’re connected online, it just means you got a little bit of curiosity-the Holy Spirit’s working with you, and I want you to see that He’s real today, and He wants you to see that He’s real. He wants you to see that if you receive Him into your life, it’ll change your life. He wants you to see that it changes your relationships. He wants you to see that He’s real, and He heals spiritually.
If you take just a little step of faith based on facts, maybe you’re going through the worst experience and pain and hurt of your life, and you feel like you can’t take another step. You are worn out; you’ve tapped out. You’ve got nothing left; your tank is empty; you’re done. It’s a good place to be because all you have to do is give it over to God, and He will give you the power that you never dreamed you could have. You can do all things through His strength because the power of the Creator of the universe lives inside you, the resurrected power of Jesus Christ lives inside you, and He says, «If you just start taking the next baby step, I will give you the strength for the next step.»
You may have been knocked down, but you’re not knocked out. My resurrection power will raise you up because you are indestructible in My name, and you’re going to look back, and you’re going to say, «How in the world did I make it through all that? How in the world did I get to this place?» Well, it was only God. I can’t even tell you how He did it; it was so miraculous. It was just one step at a time; He kept giving me the power-just stand and take a step, and then He gave me the power for the next step, and the next step. God wants to give you His strength. God wants you to feel His presence today. God wants you to know that He’s the God who heals, and He wants you to know that He’s the one that did it because He loves you.
We pray in the name of Jesus because it’s in that powerful name that we experience His powerful healing. So, I want us to stop and just pray right now and let God begin that healing. God wants to heal right now. Lord, I pray for everyone here who’s carrying a hidden hurt. Lord, that means I’m praying for everyone within the sound of my voice. I pray that You would just heal us, Lord, in those broken places in our lives that only You can heal. Maybe only You know about it, Lord. I pray that You would just heal those hurts. Heal physical illness and hurt; heal emotional hurt; heal relational hurt, Lord, and bring spiritual healing and change lives today. And, Lord, I pray for everyone that You want to go out there and just ask for prayer, that You would help them just take that little step of faith to do that, to see what You’re going to do. They won’t just leave right away or be embarrassed to do that; that You would just help them take a little step of faith and do that, to experience Your healing.
Lord, thank You that You’re so real. I thank You in advance for all that You’re going to do-all the miracles that only You can do that point to You. You’re the only one. And, Lord, I pray for those who have never experienced Your presence and Your power in their life because they’ve never received You, and they need spiritual healing today. Help them pray this prayer right now and experience the greatest healing there is-that spiritual healing that only You can give. Lord, help them say this silently in their heart:
«Dear Jesus Christ, I admit I’m broken, and I ask for Your forgiveness of all my sins. I ask You to come live inside me through Your Holy Spirit. I need Your presence; I need Your power to change me. I can’t change myself, so start changing me from the inside out. I accept Your free gift of heaven one day; I can’t earn it or deserve it. Thank You for the spiritual healing that You’ve given me. Begin restoring my life, restoring the broken places in me because You’re the great Restorer. Be the Lord of my life; help me take the next step to follow You and help me grow in my faith.» In Jesus' name, amen.