November 23, 2025 Devo

A few years ago, I was talking with a young man who had a very traumatic childhood growing up. He witnessed his mother being abused and experienced abuse himself in a variety of ways. He told me that while talking to a young woman about her abuse, it triggered all kinds of feelings for him. As she talked, he found himself growing increasingly uncomfortable and emotional. Soon he was crying uncontrollably. As he reflected on that experience with me, he made an extremely insightful and interesting observation. He said, “I knew I had a lot of scars from my childhood, but I just didn’t realize I still had so many open wounds.”
I hope you’ll read that statement again, because it’s infinitely more profound than most people know. Like many who have “stuff” in their past, he thought he was “over all that.” But he wasn’t. He had just kept himself busy enough through the years that he didn’t let himself think about all he’d been through. What he was discovering was that his past wasn’t just in his past. His past is still in HIM! He’s carrying it with him every single day. As we talked together about how God brings freedom from all of this, I told him he’d need to revisit those old wounds with a good counselor and a healing God. If he didn’t, those old wounds would keep bleeding from time to time, and not always in pleasant or manageable ways. He agreed. Then he made another profound statement. He said, “It’s like I heard a man once say. ‘God can’t fix what you won’t face.’” Amen, my brother. Amen.
So, what do YOU need to face? What wounds, whether new or old, do you need to bring healing to? What is it that you need to be set free from? Fear? Anger? Low self-esteem? Anxiety and worry? Insecurity? How about fretting endlessly over what other people think? Or how about being set free from that constant need to control what can’t be controlled? The Lord can help you with distress like that. He can begin to take off the ropes that have you tied or chase away those scary ghosts that are still haunting you. God can even take care of those old scars that you’re discovering are actually still open wounds. And if you need a counselor, or a pastor, or a good, caring friend to help you with some of that, that’s okay. Like my favorite t-shirt says, “It’s okay to have Jesus and a therapist, too.” God can fix it if you’re willing to face it. But that doesn’t mean you have to face it alone. That’s God’s Word for you today.