Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

Wounds take time to heal

When our skin is pierced or torn in some manner, the invisible agents under the skin get to work to repair the torn or broken skin. Healing takes place over time and cannot be rushed. Once the wound has occurred it must go through the stages of healing.

There are three stages of healing:

Stage 1 starts straight after you have received the wound and last for 3-5 days. This is the inflammation stage. When the wound occurs the body goes into emergency mode. Blood supply around the wounded area increases and specific cells are attracted to the area to clear up as much debris as possible.

Stage 2 is repairing the wound. As soon as the inflammation reduces, blood vessels move into the areas and start to produce scab which protects the wound as it heals.

At Stage 3, the cut has now healed but the tissue that replaces it is not normal skin, it is scar tissue which is not as strong and unlike skin does not stretch. To cope with this, the body then continuously alters the scar attempting to make it stronger.

There are many wounded soldiers in the body whose wounds have not gone through all the stages. As soon as the scar tissue appears even if it is not as strong as normal skin, they rejoin the battle. This has the effect of infecting the wound which then becomes a sore a can cause permanent damage.

How does this affect me?  Are you one of those wounded people who did not wait for you wound to heal before you are off to another camp?

Hurting people hurt people. When a soldier is wounded in the spiritual sense and that wound has not been healed, the tendency is to run to another camp. And because the situation that caused the wounding in the first place was never dealt with, that person becomes a distraction and can cause problems. So how do we effect the healing?

Once we recognise how the wounds occur and who caused it, we can move to bring healing by forgiving those who wounded us and asking forgiveness from those we have hurt. For complete healing to occur, forgiveness and repentance must be the first stages in the process.

Today forgive those who hurt you in the past, and don’t stay at the inflammation stage move on to stage 3 where total restoration can occur.

Read Psalm 119:9-16; 105; Matt 5:10-12.