I don’t always feel very Christian when I read the inspirational gobbledygook that gets shared on social media. In fact, there are few things that test the fruit of the Spirit in me more than these. So the other day, I saw a pithy, pseudo-inspirational statement someone shared on Twitter, one that punched me in the soul (and not in a good way). What’d it say?
“God can’t heal what you hide.”
I’m not going to rant about the problems with this idea, I promise. Well, I might, but I’ll try to be brief if it happens.
When I saw this pop up in my feed, interestingly, what I felt wasn’t annoyance over the silliness of the statement, but sorrow for those who would believe it. And (hopefully) not in a holier than thou sort of way, either. Why? Because this is bad, bad news, gang. It is hopeless, devoid of the gospel.
[bctt tweet=”God is always healing what we try to hide.” via=”no”]
How do I know? Because God is always healing what we try to hide. There is nothing hidden from him. He knows our darkest secrets, he knows our deepest shames, and our most deeply hidden sins. There is nothing that is outside of his sight and his reach. And in the gospel, in Christ’s death on the cross, our Father takes those things from us and places their burden on Jesus.
He will heal us because he is healing us. He is revealing to us our brokenness more deeply each day. He is confronting us with our sin. He shows us what we try to hide—because he knows what it is better than we do! And in all of it, he is making us more and more like Christ. If we have trusted in him, he will finish the good work that that he began in us. No matter how painfully slow the process might be, there’s no stopping it. Ever.
And that might just be the best news any of us read all day.
