Freud Meets Jesus 2-4

Over the last two weeks, we learned the first principle in recovering from trauma is accepting help and support from others. We also learned it is crucial to understand the truth about our trauma – the trauma is not our fault, the trauma is not our identity, and the trauma is not our future. The third and final key to our recovery from trauma is to waste no energy on revenge, but to learn to forgive.

Trauma depletes our energy in particular, the energy we need to recover and rebound with resilience. As victims of trauma, we cannot waste our energy on anything but recovery. If we waste our energy on revenge, resentment, or retaliation, we won’t have the energy we need to recover. It brings the age-old question to mind: “Do we want to be bitter or to be better?” Whenever we hold onto hurt, we allow the person who hurt us to continue hurting us!

Some are already asking, “Well, what about justice?” Justice is important, but God’s Word says justice belongs to God, not us. The Bible states it is God’s role to administer justice, as we read in Romans 12:19: “Don’t insist on getting even that’s not for you to do. I’ll do the judging, and I’ll take care of it.” What then do we do with our negative emotions and pent-up anger? Lamentations 2:19 tells us, “Get up and pray for help all through the night. Pour out your feelings to the Lord, as you would pour water out of a jug.” Could it be that simple? We are to pour out our feelings,  frustrations, anger, bitterness to God because He can and will handle it! With our feelings poured out, we can now learn to forgive. Forgiveness is not natural, easy, or fast, and when we have been traumatized, it is even harder! Forgiveness cannot be forced. We do not forgive for the other person’s sake but for our own, because we don’t want to hold onto the pain and because we too will need forgiveness.

Finally, in the process of trauma recovery, we need to hope and trust God for the strength to recover. We cannot move forward without hope. We cannot move forward without faith. We must have faith in God, but also faith in ourselves as well as in others. We must believe that we can move forward and are not paralyzed, helpless, or hopeless.

In Jeremiah 29:11, God promises, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God’s plans are hope and a future. He is the God of recovery and restoration. In fact, God promises, “I will restore you” more than 30 times in the Bible. May we remember, our God is the God of restoration!