Yesterday’s post about my temptations has been an issue for me all of my life and I suppose temptation is something every person has to deal with throughout their own lives. The greatest struggle in this for me has been that my temptations are directly tied to the sexual abuse from my brother. I have pled with God to remove them, but they still exist and I’m pretty sure I know why–Satan has a hayday with them and me. Well, this morning God’s Spirit opened my ears to a message I needed to hear and believe. This message was, “Allow yourself to finally finish grieving the childhood loss you experienced. Grieving is like a broom sweeping out all the ugliness abuse left in your heart’s room.”

In several of my counseling sessions I process the importance of letting oneself grieve. Little did I understand my own importance of letting myself finish grieving what my own counseling addressed over and over and over again. For me though, I’ve always thought I was weak when I allowed myself to grieve, but my flesh needed it so I’d let out the burst of hurt each counseling session created. Then, I could be strong again. All this time God has patiently waited for me to come to His purpose in giving us the STRENGTH of grieving. For the first time this morning I saw my own self sweeping out the last of the abuse’s ugliness.

The beauty of this is something overwhelming to me–God’s Holy Spirit can now bring in my heart’s room the truth that THE JOY OF THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH! How can joy ever replace abuse’s hurt? Well, it can and it does once we let ourselves finish grieving.