Are you protecting pain? For some reason, we like to hold onto the things that hurt us and protect it carefully, not allowing anyone or anything to touch it. If it gets touched, we’re afraid that it will start hurting again. We think if we ignore it or distance ourselves from any chance of stirring things up, we’ll be safe.

Not so. Holding onto pain is like adding poison to your food every time you eat. It will literally eat away at your soul until you can’t feel anything at all. That’s not a way to live, especially since Jesus sacrificed so much to deliver you out of it.

Help is a heartbeat away. All you have to do it confess to God that you’ve been holding onto what you shouldn’t have and give it to Him. All of it. Don’t give it over then take it back again. Allow the peace of God to settle into your spirit and heal you. It may take time to take layers off, so keep at it. Eventually, you’ll feel the joy that belongs to you.

Holding pain, protecting anything that hurts you, is a bad idea. Yours is a promise of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Live in freedom and the fullness of what is yours in Christ.