The Wounded Spirit

Proverbs 18:14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; BUT a wounded spirit who can bear?

There are many things that can displace true reverence of praise and adoration to God. I have noticed that new things from machines to equipment, cars or even a new horse can delight our minds for a while. Once we get used to it, its ecstatic awe will dissipate even if the value does not change. It is within our human nature to appreciate things we revere. After we acclimate, it loses its value to our fondness and yet it can become even greater in value with time.

This is the nature that all people are fitted with. It is within this compartment of the human make-up that we maintain the idea of the preciousness of things. Without this attribute we lose value, respect, admiration, honor, appreciation, praise, thanksgiving, desire, and many things not mentioned. This wound when nurtured can become so controlling that everything from taste to touch, feeling, and preference becomes suppressed. The ultimate extent of this problem will cost someone the will to live. How is it that some can endure the same trials of affliction and prevail, while others never do?

Have you ever noticed that a problem can cause all of this God-given attributable strength to cease in a heart-beat?  Why is this? Can one little thing ruin my whole day? Can one incident ruin my week, month, year or my entire life? Can two or ten incidents bring me irrevocable ruin? The answer is an undeniable yes!

I sadly acknowledge that many have had their ship wrecked for life because of an incident that caused a shutdown of this God-given attribute. I have never seen a person with this issue at hand that does not place blame on something. This is simply suggesting something happened somewhere.

Highly controlling parents or partners or even employers and employees can destroy this gentle plant within the tender confines of this attribute. A dream that has failed or a friend that has kicked his heel against you or a sin not forgiven can devastate this God-given characteristic.

Some people always thrive on the things that bring ruin. A wounded spirit is very hard to bear because of the vibes that emanate from its presence. The undertones of ruin emit through the words that are spoken even when the sense seems good. These emissions are repulsive to a sound mind and will erect walls instead of friendship. People with a wounded spirit are people who are prone to find or prove blame even if it does not involve them. The wounded spirit is the callous that people use to cover super-sensitivity.

I am not writing on this subject without having experience on the matter. The destructive ambitions of extreme failure and the self-consciousness of flaws I could not accept offered me much opportunity to bring personal damage to my spirit. The intense prolonged persecution, misunderstandings, spitefulness and lies from people I trusted created every opportunity to self-destruct many times.

So where do I find the answer in overcoming this despairing struggle? It is found in Proverbs 18:14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity BUT a wounded spirit nobody can bear. God’s instruction is that the spirit of a man can deal with this correctly. I have learned to radically separate the things that seek to wound my spirit from things that make my spirit wholesome. I have to take charge of the things that are designed to destroy me. I have separated them completely from the things that sustain healing in me. While my heart is filled with extreme sorrow, my heart is also filled with extreme joy. Here is the balance that can never be violated without consequences. This is a choice we have to make. Until I learn to bring every thought into confinement and separate the two highly influential thinking patterns, I will not be able to walk in Christ’s obedience. Outside of Christ’s obedience I am outside of Christ’s favor. It is like falling dominoes against me because it is unbelief. This violation will seem as a dark cloud of evil over our head with torment like that of demons.

After Jesus’ brutal rejection from His own disciples and then the inflicted pain from the beatings of the cross He concluded saying, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they do!” If it was a violation from someone else, you have to say, Father forgive him or her; he or she did not know what they just did. At times I have said, if I could only explain something, they wouldn’t have done this to me. Sometimes we have to humbly say, God forgive me, I did not know what I was doing. And move on and never revisit it again.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear (timidity); but of power, and of love (affection), and of a sound mind (self-control).