Hard seasons change us. Sometimes we resist that truth because we desperately want to get back to the person we were before the hurt. Before the loss. Before the betrayal. Before the disappointment. Before life changed. We tell ourselves: I just want to feel like myself again. But what if healing is not about going backward? What if God is not trying to return you to who you were? What if He is forming someone deeper?
Someone wiser. Someone more compassionate. Someone who knows when to speak and when to be silent. Someone who understands the importance of boundaries. Someone who knows that strength does not mean carrying everything alone. Someone who has discovered that faith can survive questions. You do not have to become your old self again to prove that you healed. You may emerge different. And different does not mean damaged. There are things you know about God now that you did not know before.
There is compassion in you that came through suffering. There is wisdom that cost you something. There is strength you discovered only because life required you to use it. God does not waste those things. Healing is not simply the removal of pain. It is also the formation of the person who walks out of it. So stop comparing yourself to who you were before. Ask God who you are becoming now. You have permission to grow.
You have permission to change. You have permission to discover that the healed version of you may not look exactly like the old version of you. God is still making something beautiful.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
Lord,
Thank You that I do not have to return to who I was before in order to be whole. Use everything I have walked through to deepen me rather than harden me. Give me wisdom from what I have learned, compassion from what I have experienced, and courage for who You are calling me to become. Help me stop comparing today’s version of me with yesterday’s. Continue shaping my heart. Make me more like You through every part of my healing. I trust the person You are forming in me.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
How have you changed through what you have experienced, and which of those changes might actually be evidence of God’s growth and healing in you? Take a few quiet moments to write your response in this week’s Companion Journal.
Join Dr. Lael for this week’s While You Wait Wednesday video and receive encouragement as we continue October’s journey of endurance and healing.
This October, we’re making room for healing, renewed hope, and strength for the wait. Our free Prayer & Perspective Companion Journal, Hope for the Week, gives you a gentle place to pause, pray, and reflect.
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Missed a devotional? Read October’s Prayer & Perspective posts here. New posts appear as they publish throughout the month.
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