10/28
((from Eve))

“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”
Proverbs 16:24 

Words that heal truly are like a honeycomb, aren’t they? Sweet to the sour, water for the parched, and balm for a wound. I’ve been on the receiving end of lots of healing words in many forms. From Scripture to a song that fit my season, to a conversation with a friend – I never cease to be amazed by how God uses His Word and the words of His people to heal.

There are a few distinct instances that stick out when I think about words that heal, and I can’t pick just one, so I’m briefly sharing each of them with you… because maybe they’re words meant for you, too.

1. Your sin is not your identity.
I was walking through a particularly sanctifying season and it seemed that no matter which way I turned, I was being convicted of sin. Though I knew it was God’s kindness to bring all the junk to my attention, and that He was pleased by my confession, I was weary and discouraged by the thought of yet again coming to Him to confess something else. It felt relentless.

I was talking things over with a couple of friends and expressing the weariness and shame I was working through, when my friend Roxanne said, “But you know that’s not how God sees you, right? It’s just sin, Eve. Not your identity. When God looks at you all He sees is Christ’s righteousness.”

Yes, I did know that, but no, I certainly wasn’t remembering that beautiful reality. Your sin is not your identity, friend. It’s something to be dealt with for sure, but it does not define you.

2.  It’s gonna be alright.
On the surface, this sounds a lot like a cliche that I would absolutely not want to hear under any difficult circumstance. Please don’t rush to use this phrase with a friend in a season of grief or pain. But, when these words are sung by the magical voice of Ms. Sara Groves? Totally different story.

I can tell by your eyes that you’re not getting any sleep
And you try to rise above it, but feel you’re sinking in too deep
Oh, oh I believe, I believe that
It’s going to be alright
It’s going to be alright

I believe you’ll outlive this pain in you heart
And you’ll gain such a strength from what is tearing you apart
Oh, oh I believe I believe that
It’s going to be alright
It’s going to be alright

When some time has past us, and the story if retold
It will mirror the strength and the courage in your soul
Oh, oh, I believe I believe,
I believe
I believe

I did not come here to offer you cliches
I will not pretend to know of all your pain
Just when you cannot, then I will hold out faith, for you
It’s going to be alright
It’s going to be alright

The Lord has used this song too many times to count as a source of comfort. It reminds me that God is Sovereign, forces me to think with an eternal lens instead of a temporal one, and honestly just floods my soul with comfort. I don’t know… there’s nothing that special about the song itself, but somehow the lyrics and melody together bring peace when not a lot of other things will.

3. No more.
Almost exactly a year ago, in one of the darkest weeks of my life, I was working on a “read-the-Bible-in-a-year” plans. I wasn’t especially relishing time in the Word at that point, but I was choosing to be in it because I knew it’s where life is found. (Ps. 119:25). On that particular day, in that difficult week, my husband and I were navigating the loss of a baby in an ectopic pregnancy. It had blindsided us and we were reeling from the blow, but on that day, my reading plan brought me to Isaiah 65, and specifically to the beginning of verse 20.

“No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days…”

Wait, what? I don’t have words to describe the balm this verse was to my soul. In a chapter focused on what the New Heavens and the New Earth will be like when Jesus returns, here was a promise for my heart to cling to at that very moment. A promise to literally grasp with all the might I could muster. That even though we were to mourn a baby here on earth, there will be a day when that type of mourning is no more? Yes, Lord! May it be so!

This verse has been an instrumental piece of truth that I have clung to as we’ve mourned and waited for the Lord’s timing in another pregnancy. And even now, as we anticipate the arrival of another Baby Stipes in January, I come back to this verse often. So much so that I had a necklace made with the reference inscribed on it. His Word is true and sure, and it’s the only thing that can bear the weight of my hope. Praise God for His Word that speaks to my soul in tangible ways.

How about you?

Do any of these words resonate? Are they words that God wants use to speak healing to you? My prayer is that whether it’s these or others, you hear His voice in His Word and His people in a way that brings healing to your soul, even today.