Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

"Do you want to be made whole?"¹

As noted yesterday, God's goal isn't to make us good for goodness sake. It is to fix us from the inside and to make us whole. We know that Jesus came to seek and to save those who were lost, but he never asked anyone directly, "Do you want to be saved?" His invitation was, "Do you want to be made whole or well?"

In several places in the Bible the word for saved can be equally translated healed. God's goal for us is to heal the whole person in body and mind as well as in spirit. Accepting Jesus as Savior is just the beginning point. We are then to go on to maturity, to grow and become whole. This takes time. It is a process. There is no such thing as instant wholeness or instant maturity.

To be made whole we need to want it badly enough that we are willing to face and resolve the root causes of our negative behaviors, poor relationships, sins and sicknesses that are caused by unresolved personal issuesâ€"whatever they might be. We need to come out of denial (be real) and be connected to our dark side (those areas of our life that we don't particularly want to see and definitely don't want others to see), and confess these not only to God, but also to at least one safe, loving, and non-judgmental personâ€"and be loved and accepted by that person in spite of our failures. As James said, "Confess your sins and faults to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed."² This is the path to healing and wholeness and also the way to grow in love, with love being the highest fruit of wholeness.

So the opposite of bad is not being good, but being made whole. Goodness that comes from the heart will be the result.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me, not only to be connected to you through Jesus, but also connected to my 'dark side' and to safe, loving, and accepting people to be loved, healed and made whole so that my life, actions, behaviors and relationships will be wholesomeâ€"and all goodness in my life will be the fruit or result of being made whole. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."

1. John 5:6.
2. James 5:16.

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