The Most Powerful Act of Faith
Pursuing Healing and Wholeness of Your Heart
Friend, do you know what the most powerful act of faith is?
It came out of the blue–a mighty hurricane on a sunny, blue-skied day. Out of nowhere, I lost control over my body and my heart threatened to come out of my chest. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t talk. I thought I was dying. I was just screaming in my mind from utter horror.
It took hours before the storm quieted. It left me disoriented, disentangled, and mentally and physically exhausted. The hurricane threw me out on an unknown, scary shore. On this shore, I faced a taunting giant. He had two heads and bore the names of Anxiety Disorder and Panic Attacks.
What is the problem, God?
Where was God and why did He let this happen to me? These were the first questions I asked myself.
I couldn’t understand. I followed God faithfully, studying His Word and meditating on it. Every day, I searched His face.
It was my habit to pray daily for spiritual growth, sanctification, freedom, and deeper roots of my faith. I witnessed God’s power firsthand in the years before that when He led me on a journey of healing from past traumas.
I thought my faith was strong. Strong faith and panic attacks don’t fit together.
So I thought.
What is the problem, God? Why do you let me suffer in such a way?
The most powerful act of faith
Friend, if, as a faithful follower of Christ, you are in the land of affliction today, perhaps you ask the same question.
God’s answer is always an invitation to draw near to Him and move by faith toward healing. Pursuing healing and the wholeness of your heart is the most powerful act of faith.
Why?
Because it requires faith to lay open the most vulnerable and painful parts of our hearts and entrust them to the Healer.
It takes faith to face our pains, wounds, and worst fears, trusting we can overcome them by God’s power.
It requires faith and courage to bear the pain of the healing and wait for the transformation and restoration when all we see is ashes.
It takes faith to persevere and press through the process of acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go.
We need a giant faith to slay the giants
I said “Yes” to God’s invitation to seek healing and a healthier heart, and walked the way He was leading.
This way led me to a beautiful self-discovery and God-discovery. God has buried so many hidden treasures in the dark, and I want to share three of them with you.
God’s Word is a mighty weapon when we act in faith
The Lord gave me weapons and words of war against the giant I faced.
One of my most used battle cries was these verses:
“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life–of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1, NIV)
I listened to, prayed, declared, and focused on these words many times per day for months. Until they became a part of me and the Lord truly became my light and my salvation from this terrible condition.
Pursuing healing requires humility
Healing often is a struggle to humble ourselves and to accept all the developments in our lives, especially the ones we didn’t want. We need to let go of the urge to control and to learn to surrender on a regular base.
My struggle with anxiety and panic attacks revealed I harbored controlling desires that enslaved me and robbed my freedom.
These unfulfilled controlling desires sucked a lot of mental and emotional energy out of me, an energy I could invest in my relationship with God.
We can trust God for emotional healing
It is a powerful act of faith to trust God for our emotional healing, too.
That also includes the healing of our painful and traumatic memories.
One verse I clung to for emotional healing is this one:
“In righteousness, you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you.” (Isaiah 54:14, NIV)
In faith, we need to revisit our painful experiences in the safety of His presence and close these doors forever. These doors of pain are also the path to our freedom and recovery.
A healthier heart
Friend, me and God defeated my giant. Looking back, I am thankful for that experience because, through it, God tested my faith and gave me a healthier heart.
A healthier heart is a healed heart.
With a healed and restored heart, and a tested faith, I am better prepared to face the new challenges, disappointments, and losses coming my way in the future.
I am not afraid.
God made me forget my pain and made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.
Hadassah Treu is an award-winning Christian blogger, author, and poet, the Encouraging Blogger Award Winner for 2020. She loves to encourage and motivate people to stand firm in the faith, and to grow spiritually by applying biblical truths in their lives. Hadassah has been featured on (In)courage, Proverbs 31 Ministries, Her View From Home, Living by Design Ministries, Thoughts About God, Today’s Christian Living, and other popular sites. Hadassah is also a contributing author to several award-winning devotional and poetry anthologies. Connect with Hadassah on her blog https://onthewaybg.com.
